RESTORING Westover Road to its former glory will be Bournemouth council's next project after the Winter Gardens scheme.

The borough has been working up plans for a major new development on the Bath Road north and south car parks by the Pavilion, dubbed 'Pavilion Gardens', in a bid to revitalise 'Bournemouth's Bond Street'.

Like the Winter Gardens plan, which is due to be assessed at a special meeting of the council planning board at the end of the month, the project is a product of the borough's Bournemouth Development Company (BDC) partnership with Morgan Sindall Investments.

Councillor Philip Broadhead, cabinet member for economic growth, said: "We’re turbo-charging plans for development at the end of Westover Road.

"With the cinemas gone, the big solution is Pavilion Gardens, and we want to bring it forward sooner rather than later, after Winter Gardens."

Cllr Broadhead said the road’s fortunes had taken a downward turn following the closure of the Odeon and ABC cinemas.

He said since the opening of the BH2 complex the “gravity of the town centre has shifted to the west”.

"A business plan was put together by BDC earlier this year, and Pavilion Gardens is on the list of forthcoming developments.

"Within the next six months to a year, we’ll be developing the plans."

Also, Cllr Broadhead said there was need for more parking in the area.

While the council plans to build on the two car parks, it has stated that the spaces will be replaced like-for-like in a multi-storey on site.

The borough has previously said it plans to use the cash generated by the Winter Gardens development to fund Pavilion Gardens – which is proposed to host a new theatre, gallery and restaurants.

The former scheme may face trouble at the planning board due to objections lodged by Historic England – due to the potential impact on nearby buildings – and Natural England.

For Westover Road in the short term, Cllr Broadhead said, the Bournemouth Town Centre BID had plans to bring across Lansdowne’s Metropole Market.

Business owners speaking to the Daily Echo in March, around a year after the cinemas’ closure, said the traditionally upmarket retail road had seen a big drop in footfall.