COUNCILLORS will discuss a "high risk" proposal to buy back a development site in Bournemouth at a meeting today.

The St Stephen’s Road car park is one of 17 publicly-owned sites sold to or earmarked for the Bournemouth Development Company (BDC) - a partnership between the council and Morgan Sindall Investments - in 2011.

The company has submitted a scheme to build 46 flats divided between two blocks of seven and six storeys, and the council's cabinet will today discuss whether to buy the site back once they are complete.

It would then be let out for profit by the council-owned Seascape Homes and Property Ltd.

According to a report by the borough's head of property Gary Platt and commercial programme manager Sarah Longthorpe: "The council is proposing to purchase the completed development as an investment asset from the Bournemouth Development Company.

"The purchase will be funded using prudential borrowing from the Public Works Loan Board.

"It will be managed as a private-sector rented scheme.

"Since the council is not able to grant assured shorthold tenancies, the flats will be operated by the council’s wholly-owned company, Seascape Homes and Property Ltd, under a 25-year lease."

The report says the plans are "high risk" due to "the significant sum of money expended on this purchase and the risk of adverse media coverage" and changes to Public Works Loan Board interest rates.

The councils says the plans will "improve tenant choice in the market place" by establishing "high quality, professionally managed, private-rented homes" intended for "an increasingly mobile, professional workforce".

The existing car park is used by council staff during the day and by the public in the evenings and at weekends.

BDC's scheme has seen some criticism for only including 36 parking spaces.

According to the cabinet report, the company has "successfully progressed" its application, and it is only awaiting agreement on conditions.

If approved, council staff will be redirected to use the borough's recently-purchased Avenue Road car park.