WORK to build a new adventure golf course is set to start next month.

The Smugglers’ Cove attraction is due to be open on the former Imax Waterfront site by Pier Approach this summer.

Bournemouth council will operate the temporary facility, which will remain open for a few years as the site is part of the wider Bath Road car park area earmarked for the Bournemouth Development Company to create a major leisure scheme.

A short public footpath behind the site will be closed from Monday, March 11, until the end of July. A diversion will be in place via the Bath Road footway and Pier Approach.

Themed around the area’s smuggling heritage, the 18-hole golf course was approved by the council despite a range of concerns raised by the borough’s urban design officer over the materials proposed.

However borough planners agreed that materials had been correctly chosen based on both their thematic suitability and for practical reasons with a temporary structure.

Last April, former Bournemouth mayor Rod Cooper led calls for a tropical butterfly house on the land, however he said the council had refused to lease the site for the project.