PLANS to bring a new-look Burger King to the Sovereign Centre have taken a step forward.

The fast-food giant is applying to Bournemouth council for permission to install two Burger King signs on the shopfront.

The restaurant would occupy the former New Look, the Mayor’s Emporium and a unit currently used by a pop-up clothes shop.

It would be only the third new-look Burger King, called a 20/20 Garden Grill and styled like a 1970s diner, in the UK.

It comes after an application was submitted last month by NewRiver Retail, the landlords of the shopping centre, to change the use of units 1-3 from retail to a premises selling food and drink.

A statement made in support of that application said New Look had decided not to renew the lease on its unit “due to extremely poor trade”.

Agents for NewRiver say that since the departure of TJ Hughes in 2013 there has been “a steady decrease in footfall”, leading to a “very detrimental effect on the Sovereign Centre”.

A spokesperson for NewRiver said the firm is “working increasingly hard” to improve its shopping centres.

She said: “People are looking for their local centre to become a destination and somewhere they can go shopping but also grab lunch or dinner with a friend afterwards.

“In attracting a fantastic brand like Burger King, we are simply pushing forward with our strategic lettings, attracting more food operators to Boscombe to give the shoppers there much more choice.”

According to the application for the new signs - they will be half a metre high and more than five metres wide.

They will be made out of powder coated metal and acrylic and will look similar to the ‘Burger King’ style.

One of the signs will say ‘Burger King’ with the restaurant’s logo and the second sign will read ‘flame grilling since 1954’.

Bournemouth council is still yet to make a decision on either of the applications but they are both currently ‘under consideration’.