Trowbridge cinema and leisure park plans given go-ahead

Site managers Legal and General say around 200 jobs will be generated by the scheme

Plans for a cinema and leisure complex in Trowbridge in Wiltshire have been approved by council planners.

The multiplex Odeon cinema, restaurants and an 80-bed Premier hotel will be located at the derelict former Tesco site in St Stephen's Place.

Site managers Legal and General UK Property Trust said around 200 jobs would be generated by the scheme.

Tim Russell, senior asset manager, said the construction process would start immediately.

He said: "The project has taken about 20 months to come to fruition.

"We have worked alongside Wiltshire Council to design and deliver a pure leisure scheme on St Stephen's Place to bring back into proper use a site that has been derelict, and a blot on the landscape for the last 18 years."

He said he hoped the complex would be "open and ready to trade" by autumn 2013.

A planning application for a similar cinema, supermarket and restaurant complex on the former Bowyers factory site in the town has yet to be approved.

Angus Horner, managing director of developers Prorsus, who have submitted their application for the Innox Riverside project, said of the approved scheme: "Any development that delivers leisure facilities to Trowbridge is good news.

"We hope that councillors will now seize the wider opportunity to fully transform the town centre and give Innox Riverside on the Bowyers site the green light."