A PLAN to chop the top off Bournemouth’s Imax building but leave most of it standing has been blasted as a “terrible waste of money”.

Bournemouth council has submitted plans for an “interim re-development” which could be in place for up to 15 years until a developer is found to replace it entirely.

But the plan has been criticised by residents’ spokesman David Clutterbuck – who was one of only seven councillors to vote against building the Waterfront Imax building when he served on Bournemouth council.

Mr Clutterbuck, now chairman of East Cliff and Town Centre Residents’ Association, said he had been speaking to locals about the scheme and “they all said it’s a terrible waste of money”.

“They might as well wait until the economy picks up again and get rid of it properly,” he said.

“I’m not in favour of it at all. I can’t see it serves any purpose whatsoever.”

Plans submitted by the council’s chosen architects involve removing the existing top floor and opening the new rooftop for use by the public.

Existing businesses in the building are being ousted, but new tenants would have to be found for the interim scheme. The aim is to find a long-term solution when the economy improves.

The council says the latest plans will be funded from the £8.5 million already set aside to acquire the building and partially demolish it.

But Cllr Claire Smith, leader of the council’s Liberal Democrat opposition, wanted assurances about the funding.

“We want to know what the bottom line figure is going to be,’’ she said.

“Time has moved on and with the budget pressures that we’re experiencing, I think we need to get another debate going as to whether this is going to be value for money for just 10 years.”

The Conservative council’s deputy leader, Cllr John Beesley, said investment funding was scarce and the full scheme had to be put on hold.

“There’s no point pretending we can buck the market because obviously we can’t at the moment. We need to be in a position when the market comes back to act on that,” he said.

He added: “We would be failing Bournemouth residents if we just mothballed the building but we started in a slightly different economic environment than the one we’re in at the moment.”