A MULTI-MILLION pound leisure, restaurant and multiplex cinema development is set to finally go before a council planning committee next week…and has been tipped for approval.

Parts of the huge Colchester Council scheme at Northern Gateway in Colchester includes restaurants, an 80-bed hotel, a 12-screen cinema put forward by Turnstone leisure will go before the planning committee on Thursday

Council officers have recommended the scheme, which would be based on the south of A12, is approved when they are discussed by the planning committee on Thursday.

State of the art sports facilities could also be developed north of the A12 which will include relocation of Colchester Rugby Club from Mill Road.

The plans were due to be discussed in December but were removed from the agenda at the 11th hour after a legal challenge was submitted to the council from the Tollgate Partnership, which wants to build its own leisure and retail scheme, Tollgate Village in Stanway.

Because the scheme included traditional town centre uses such as restaurants and leisure facilities and is a departure from the land allocation in the Local Plan – the council, alongside developers Turnstone have been forced to taken on a sequential test to see if any other locations for the development could take place in order to meet national planning guidelines.

The Vineyard Gateway site was considered and discounted because of plans for a retail scheme on the site.

Afterwards, the Tollgate Village site was put forward as a potential candidate but was also considered unsuitable because Cineworld, the only likely candidate to take on the multiplex cinema which would include 4DX facilities, do not want to move to the Stanway site.

A spokesman for Cineworld said: “The Northern Gateway scheme lends itself to one of these new generation regional destination cinemas.

“Put simply, the site is large enough to handle the specification required and with immediate access to the A12 and highly visible, it will be perfectly positioned to draw on the regional catchment required to support the investment.

“The Tollgate Village site is not of interest to us.

“It does not provide the easy access and visibility we require nor do we have any interest in opening a half height medium sized standard multiplex in a market already served by Odeon.”

“The location also appears to compete more directly with the town centre.

“We would rather locate in schemes which complement the town centre.”

Colchester Council has worked with planning consultants Lichfield to discuss the impact of the proposed new development on the Odeon in Head Street - where bosses have objected to the Northern Gateway scheme - and the boutique Curzon cinema which is due to open in Queen Street later this year.

A report prepared by Lichfield said: “The implications of the Northern Gateway proposals cannot be considered beneficial to the town centre, but the benefits of linked trips may help to reduce the level of impact on the vitality and viability of the town centre. The net impact is likely to be negative but not significant.

“In terms of the loss of cinema trips in the town centre based on Lichfield’s figures, the residual number of trips attracted to the Odeon cinema is still higher than the benchmark national average and we would not expect the Odeon to close.”

“It is unlikely that the development will harm the retail function of the town centre during normal trading hours.”

“In our view the cinema will not jeopardize or delay the proposed Curzon cinema.

“Even if the Odeon cinema did close, the new Curzon cinema will retain a cinema facility within the town centre and there will be no significant adverse impact to the town centre as a whole.

“Most of the diverted cinema trips will be during the evenings, and it is unlikely the development will harm the retail function of the town centre during normal trading hours.

If committee members agree with officers recommendations the scheme will be referred to the Secretary of State ahead of a final decision.