AROUND £120million of investment will be poured into Bournemouth's Lansdowne area if developers win permission to transform three key sites, it is claimed.

Developers Watkin Jones have unveiled their proposals for a "comprehensive redevelopment" of three key sites in Oxford Road, Holdenhurst Road and Christchurch Road.

They are hoping to demolish the existing largely vacant buildings and replace them with new multi-storey buildings that contain:

- 22,577 square metres of floorspace for offices, businesses and tertiary teaching facilities. This could also include a health centre.

- A 128-bedroom Premier Inn hotel fronting on to Christchurch Road.

- 930 bedspaces of purpose-built student accommodation, split over two sites.

- 212 square metres of retail and commercial space fronting on to a new walkway between Christchurch Road and St Swithun's Road.

- A pedestrian plaza linking Holdenhurst Road and Oxford Road and another one between Christchurch Road and St Swithun's Road.

A presentation explaining the details of the scheme was given to members of Bournemouth's planning board at their last meeting.

Cllr Dave Kelsey, chair of the planning board, said it had been useful to get more information about the application, before it comes before the board for a decision in July or August.

He said he had some concerns about the plans: "The idea of putting another 1,000 students into the Lansdowne area doesn't entirely fill me with joy, nor does the idea of a 130-bedroom hotel with no car parking or office space with minimal car parking," he said.

"But it was useful to be able to ask questions of the developers and the application will be considered in the same way as every other application."

Representatives from Watkin Jones said their scheme would see the first brand new, high quality speculative offices to have been built in the Lansdowne for approximately 25 years and they predicted their investment would see other developers follow suit.

They said a new landmark building at the corner of Christchurch Road and St Swithun's would announce the entrance to the "Lansdowne business and tall buildings area" from the east.

And they said it would result in a significantly increased amount of spending in the Lansdowne area, with the student accommodation alone predicted to result in over £8.5million of spending in the local area.

Currently, the buildings sustain just 22 jobs, as the majority of floorspace has lain vacant for a long time, but this could rise to between 834 and 1,577 depending on what the buildings are used for.

Cllr Philip Stanley-Watts, who is also on the planning board, said: "I am just slightly concerned to see all the investment and the student facilities go into one area. It would be nice if it was spread out a bit more, Boscombe in particular would benefit from an increased student community."

You can read more information on the proposals by viewing the application on the Bournemouth Council website