A PLAN to demolish an historic Bournemouth hotel and replace it with 95 flats has been rejected due to its “inappropriate design”.

The Manchester Hotel, situated on the corner of St Michael’s Road and Hahnemann Road, attracted entertainers including Jim Davidson, Carry On star Hattie Jacques and Barry Howard from Hi-de-Hi! during its heyday in the ‘70s and ‘80s.

But Christchurch-based developers Building and Construction City had submitted an application seeking permission to build 70 flats and 25 holiday apartments on the site, which would have included a basement car park for 58 vehicles.

In a letter to the applicant’s planning agents Anders Roberts and Associates, the borough’s head of planning Andrew England said that the development’s layout would have resulted in “a poor standard of living accommodation for future occupiers”.

“It is considered that, by reason of the excessive height, scale, and bulk of building proposed, together with its inappropriate design and siting, and unacceptable mix of units, the development would be out of keeping with the character and appearance of the conservation area,” he said.

“The arrangement of the proposed holiday flats within the building are considered to be inappropriate and would prejudice the long term retention of their use.”

Mr England said the application had “failed to provide adequate car parking” and “failed to justify the reduction”.

“The applicant has failed to provide separate allocated parking for the 25 holiday flats nor considered how this will be actively managed to ensure that residents do not use these spaces when the holiday flats are unoccupied,” he added.

The applicant’s design and access statement had argued that the current site “makes a neutral contribution, at best, to the character and special interest of the conservation area”.

In 2004 planning permission to demolish the hotel and build a block of 50 flats was refused on the grounds that granting it would have “resulted in an unacceptable loss of tourism accommodation”.