Residents of Sandbanks are worried that the area will turn into the “Magaluf of Britain” after plans to transform a historic solarium into a “Love Island” style beach club were approved, a news report has claimed. More than 200 letters of objection have been sent by the local residents amid concerns that it will attract “loutish visitors”.
Entrepreneur Luke Davis, who is behind the scheme, will replace the seafront building at Branksome Chine, which is just a stone’s throw away from the exclusive neighbourhood, with Rockwater Village.
The 1930s art-deco building was Britain’s first solarium, with critics calling its replacement an “act of gratuitous vandalism”.
Locals wrote of concerns that it will be designed to “attract the Love Island crowd” and it will lead to “loutish visitors”.
MailOnline reported that one objector described the appearance of the proposed development as “straight out of a Miami beach scrapbook of unsuitable designs”.
They added it will be an “act of gratuitous vandalism” to replace the current building with the beach club.
Another critic, Mike Watts, has predicted that the nightspot will be come a “drinking/get-drunk hub for loutish visitors that have come here to let off steam and don’t care a jot about our health and wellbeing”.
He continued: “If BCP allow this then it is clear their intent is on changing the face of Poole from a family resort with beautiful beaches to become the Magaluf of Britain.”
Several other residents have raised concern that the beach club could invite a “yob element” who invade Sandbanks in the summer months.
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“I’m pretty sure that they will be customers in the future.”
Committee vice-chairman Cllr Toby Johnson said it was a good development for the area which would provide extra space for local people and visitors.
He said: “I quite like the contemporary style. I think it is an intensification, but that’s not really a bad thing.
“The benefits of changing it do outweigh the conservation concerns.”
