A LONG-standing £50m cinema and restaurant scheme is set to be scrapped so the land can be used for a town centre bus station instead.

Bournemouth councillors are expected to formally pull the plug on the West Central scheme at their cabinet meeting on Wednesday, February 15.

The ambitious scheme for the NCP car park in Exeter Road has been in the pipeline since 2006.

Developers Licet Holdings succeeded in gaining both planning permission and an agreement to purchase some of the land from Bournemouth council but the development was hit by the economic slowdown.

Licet recently announced the scheme was back on track and has applied once again to buy the necessary land from the council.

But cabinet members are set to reject this offer at their next meeting, claiming the situation has changed since the deal was originally struck.

In particular, the council is now keen on turning the site back into a bus station, in a bid to reduce bus congestion in Gervis Place.

It also points out that there are now rival plans for cinema multiplexes at both the Winter Gardens and the Pavilion sites, meaning there is no need for cinemas at Exeter Road.

Cllr John Beesley, deputy leader of the council, said: “It is a shame that this scheme was not started in 2009.

“I know that the developers did everything they could at the time but this scheme was a casualty of the recession.”

He added that “a lot had changed” in the intervening period and said the Town Centre Area Action Plan had identified the NCP cark park as the only option for a bus hub.

“We have not closed the door completely,” he said. “We are saying to Licet that we would be willing to sell them the small area of land that they require, but only if their scheme can be amended so that it contributes to the improvement of public transport facilities in the area.”

The council states that Licet’s original scheme cannot be implemented without the council’s land and a revised scheme that excludes the council’s land would require new planning permission.

Requiring Licet to incorporate a bus hub would also reduce the profitability of the scheme and would be very difficult to make work.

But Chris Dymond, of Licet, said: “Our partner NCP owns this site, we have the funding in place and the planning permission required by the law so we are ready to go ahead, with the unanimous support of the operators who see the West Central location on Exeter Road as the best in town.

“We can make minor amendments to our existing scheme so it can be built within the existing planning consent if necessary.”