PLANS have been submitted to replace Bournemouth’s Odeon cinema with an even bigger block of flats than was proposed before.

Libra Homes wants to demolish most of the building in favour of a 14-storey block of 101 homes, along with two levels of shops plus a restaurant on the top two floors.

An earlier application, which has yet to be considered by councillors, proposed 84 flats and 97 car park spaces as well as shops.

Bournemouth’s Civic Society has blasted the latest scheme as “even worse” than what was proposed before.

The Westover Road cinema was bought by Libra Homes last year for £3.8million. It is due to shut when a new Odeon multiplex opens next month at the BH2 leisure complex off the Square.

A statement with the latest application admits the plans contain a “slightly higher quantum of development” than before.

The scheme would keep the frontage of the locally-listed cinema, but the rest would be replaced with a tall and glassy building.

There would be shops on the ground and first floors, with flats on floors two to 12 and a restaurant on the 13th and 14th storeys.

The statement from Goadsby Planning & Environment says: “The proposed residential development on the upper floors deliberately departs from the character of what surrounds it.

“It is considered that the application is policy compliant, with the exception that the site is located outside of the areas designated to accommodate tall buildings, and there is a departure from the required quantum of retail floor space.”

But James Weir, heritage and conservation officer with Bournemouth Civic Society, said: “We are greatly concerned by this even more intrusive and inappropriate proposal, particularly when the current application has already attracted significant opposition.

“Moreover, this time there is not even any pretence at addressing heritage issues, nor the importance of the Odeon to the people of Bournemouth. As before, the reasons for demolition are far from justified.”

He urged people to write letters of objection over the latest application as well as the first.

The Odeon was originally the Regent, which opened in 1929. It was only the second “super cinema” in Britain, with a single auditorium seating 2,300.

It was renamed the Gaumont in 1949 and was converted into two auditoriums in 1969, with a 75ft Cinerama screen upstairs. It boasts the last surviving Cinerama auditorium in the country.

The cinema was rebranded the Odeon in 1986 and was converted into a five-screen multiplex in 1989, with a sixth screen added in 1995.

Its ABC sister cinema closed last week.