PROPOSALS to demolish a Bournemouth church and replace it with 105 student flats have been submitted.

The planning application seeks to replace the Christadelphian Church in Bath Road with an eight-storey block of flats.

The proposed building will have a café on the ground floor and 105 studio flats above, which would be rented out to full-time students attending university or college in Bournemouth.

The application has been submitted by Planning Solutions Town Planners on behalf of SPV Property Solutions.

In the supporting information provided to the council, Planning Solutions state the flats are designed to appeal to students wanting more space and a higher specification than traditional student accommodation.

The design brief states: “The design team felt it was important that the building did not appear over ‘institutionalised.’ This is considered to have been achieved.

“So although the building fulfils a commercial purpose of housing students, it would not automatically be recognised as student accommodation by the average person passing the street.”

The application has sparked seven objections from residents of nearby Buckingham Mansions.

The Bournemouth Civic Society said that although the application would result in the loss of a well-known landmark, redevelopment was “perhaps inevitable.”

They are calling for the building to be reduced in height and moved further back from the street and for the design to be altered.