YOU don’t need that long a memory to recall a time when it seemed Bournemouth badly wanted an Imax.

In the 1990s, the town’s tourist trade was said to be crying out for a wet-weather attraction to fill a prime location on the seafront.

The swimming baths on the Pier Approach had been demolished in 1986 and for the next decade, plans for the site came to nothing.

The idea of a giant-screen Imax cinema – of the kind that was already stunning audiences at Bradford, in what was then called the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television – had been first mooted in 1988.

The idea was revived by another developer in 1995, as one of four possible schemes for the site.

In 1996 Bournemouth council gave outline planning permission for a leisure building which included an Imax along with restaurants and bars.

In 1997, when a revised application came before the planning committee, the proposed building had grown 17 feet taller. But when the committee deferred a decision, saying it needed a traffic impact assessment and more details on a host of other points, it was heavily criticised.

The developer, Sheridan, complained about the delay and the then leader of the council, Douglas Eyre, slated the planners for holding the resort back.

In March 1997, the planning committee finally gave the go-ahead, hours ahead of a special full council meeting which Cllr Eyre had called to get the project agreed.

One of the dissenting planners, then-councillor Bob Lelliott, said later: “There was a wave of enthusiasm from a few people which seemed to be pushing like mad to get it done without proper regard to all the facts.”

But Douglas Eyre insisted he had to apply some pressure, saying later: “You get to the stage where if you want things to happen, you have to push hard, because a council will always find obstacle after obstacle of a legal nature to stop something happening.”

Building work on what was now called the Waterfront building began in late 1998. There was an outcry when the frame of the building went up and people began to appreciate how big it would be. Its bulk meant the loss of the spectacular view of Poole Bay from Bath Hill, which had been enjoyed since the swimming baths disappeared. But by then, it was too late to do much about it.

Ironically, when the planning application was considered in 1997, there had been only two objections from the public. And neither of those concerned the height of the building.

Far from being just what Bournemouth’s tourist trade needed the Waterfront building, containing the Imax cinema, became a reviled white elephant.

In 1997, councillors were told that the Sheridan Group would be bound by an “absolute guarantee” to keep the Imax open all year round for at least a decade.

The existence of the guarantee was revealed almost a decade later through a Freedom of Information Act request by the Daily Echo. But critics would say the agreement proved not to be worth the paper it was written on.

The Imax cinema was due to open in July 1999, but the date passed. Other businesses opened that September.

Sheridan succeeded in building the giant Odyssey Centre in Belfast, and welcomed President Bill Clinton there in 2000, but seemed unable to get its much smaller project in Bournemouth completed.

“Technical issues”, insurance disputes, construction delays and “legal wrangles” with the Imax Corporation were all blamed.

At one point, Sheridan was thrown off the project by Nilgos, the pension fund which held the lease to the Waterfront building, only to be brought back months later.

When the Imax finally opened in March 2002, two years and eight months late, Sheridan’s bosses were in buoyant mood. But when the next day technical problems stopped the cinema from showing 3D films, it might have looked like an omen.

By January 2003, the cinema was laying off staff and closing for four days a week out of season.

Douglas Eyre warned people to use it or lose it.

The prospect of putting on live music and comedy in the venue, along with conventional films and singalong showings of Grease and The Sound of Music, came to nothing because clauses in the lease prohibited it.

By March 2005, the cinema was closed in preparation for a revamp. It was still closed when the building’s 10th birthday came around.