A DORSET businessman has bought Poole’s defunct Tatnam Hotel but says it is too early to know what the future holds for the site.

Philip Oram, who owns the iconic Hermitage Hotel on Exeter Road, Bournemouth, acquired the Tatnam from Enterprise Inns, which closed the ailing pub last month.

Rumours about what will replace the Tatnam pub, close to Poole Stadium on Wimborne Road, have ranged from a supermarket to a budget hotel to flats.

But Mr Oram, who made an unsuccessful bid to buy Cherries’ Fitness First Stadium in 2007, said plans for the site were some way off being finalised.

He said: “I am sure something can happen but we are just looking at what to do with the building at the moment.”

Mr Oram said he didn’t think the site suited a hotel and that shops and flats were also unlikely. No plans for the Tatnam are likely to be submitted to the council before Christmas, he added.

The grand two-storey structure is a locally listed building, which means that the façade will have to be at least partially maintained.

Currently, the old pub is boarded up for safety reasons but residents are angry at the state of the site.

One resident of Tatnam Road, who asked not to be named, said it was fast becoming a magnet for antisocial behaviour.

He said: “It is just a great big ugly eyesore at the moment.

“People are using it to dump rubbish and the fire brigade was there at the weekend.

“The longer it stays like this, the more of a target it becomes.”