Grade II-listed shopping centre in Bournemouth in line for revamp with plans set to move forward

A grade II-listed shopping centre in Bournemouth is in line for a revamp with plans set to move forward at a meeting next week (20 February).BCP Council wants to revamp the Royal Arcade which is within Boscombe High Street and includes ndependent shops, boutiques and bazaars.Proposed is the change of use of the upper floors to mixed office and business start-up space.Also included would be a mix of retail and other commercial uses at ground floor including the creation of a food hall area with pop-up eatier.Four retail units would be lost to provide life access to upper floors and ground floor toilets, along with the partial loss of two retail units to provide bin stores.Cycle parking would also be created along with roof mounted photovoltaics.A resolution was previously made by Bournemouth’s Eastern BCP planning committee to grant planning permission for the scheme last August.The current application has been brought back to the committee as during formulation of a legal agreement, the applicant has decided to contribute towards visitor cycle parking facilities via a planning condition instead of a section 106 agreement.