AN AMBITIOUS plan to transform a shopping centre is one step closer to reality.

The owner of Chineham District Centre is looking to overhaul the area and build new shops, restaurants and cafés, a ‘boutique cinema’, a healthcare facility/business centre, a ‘budget’ hotel and a ‘low-cost’ gym.

A planning application has now been submitted to Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council.

The plan would also be to add public toilets, create a public space in the middle of the centre, called a ‘heart space’ and undertake extensive landscaping works.

The proposal would also mean there would be 147 additional parking spaces at the site, which was built in the 1980s, taking the overall total to 955 spaces.

James Burchell, partner at Tellon Capital, which took over the centre earlier this year, said: “After many months of engagement with the community, council and tenants, it is a real milestone to have submitted this planning application.

“We welcome continued engagement with all interested parties throughout the determination process.”

Tellon Capital would not confirm the overall cost, only to say it is ‘substantial’.

It is planned to keep parking free for all centre users while an element of the new spaces would be via a small multi-storey car park.

It is proposed the cinema would have three or four screens, as a counterpoint to the multiplexes in Festival Place and the Leisure Park while the hotel would consist of 72 rooms and would be on the Premier Inn/Travelodge end of the market.

There will also be new pedestrian and cycle routes throughout the centre, linking into Binfields Woodland and other existing networks

Two rounds of public consultation, including events at the centre, have preceded the submission of the application, with Tellon Capital adding this has resulted in the addition of an improved cycling connection to Wade Road, the provision of public toilets and the idea of a healthcare facility on the site.

The planning statement submitted by Tellon Capital reads: “The changes summarised above will fundamentally change the offer and feel of the District Centre, enhancing its sense of place and identity and helping unlock its potential to better serve and support the growing local community.

“The proposed development will address constraints long identified as holding back the District Centre’s contribution to the local community.”

A decision is expected by March next year with Basingstoke and Deane borough councillors likely to have the final say on the plans.

To view the application and to comment, go to planning.basingstoke.gov.uk/online-applications and search for the reference code 18/03417/FUL.