Civic planners last night reluctantly approved Bournemouth's much-maligned land train garage.

But they stressed that efforts should be made to find an alternative site for the seafront building with a view to eventually bulldozing the controversial construction.

Roger Brown, the borough's head of leisure services, urged planning board members to grant irrespective permission for the garage.

The hated building has been in breach of its planning permission ever since it was erected because it is more than half a metre too high.

Mr Brown described the garage it as a fairly integral part' of the Boscombe Spa Village project.

He added: "Land trains on the market now are taller than the ones we have currently got."

Cllr Beverley Dunlop, portfolio holder for leisure services, admitted that the land train garage was not on the ideal site.

"Without a garage we can't proceed with the Boscombe Spa development.

"No land train means no further development," she warned.

Ward councillor Michael Filer said: "I, together with many constituents, was quite horrified by the building.

"This is not the right place for the garage but what is there does the job perfectly satisfactorily."

A move to grant retrospective approval was carried by ten votes to one, on the condition that alternative sites are explored and the building is demolished within a year of a new site being found.