AMBITIOUS plans to demolish Petersfield's town centre nightclub and redevelop the site with a continental-style restaurant, bar and 15 flats have been unveiled this week. The proposal has been submitted this week to East Hampshire District Council by PRC Planning on behalf of the owners of the Swan Street Vertigo nightclub, Regional Inns. Sam Betts, who along with Richard Luff of Vertigo is the joint manager for Regional Inns, told The Herald this week: "The decision to submit these plans was made mainly because we are trying to evolve as a nightclub due to the new licensing laws. "Currently we have a huge building to maintain with only a couple of nightclub sessions a week, which is near-on impossible. She said the new licensing laws were expected to bring with them a wider range of later opening licences in the Petersfield area. "This could affect us and we do need to evolve to meet this challenge." She said the present Vertigo building was not suitable for use during the day. "It was purpose-built as the Savoy cinema and later turned into a nightclub, so it has no windows and it desperately needs modernisation," she said. The upper, Savoy Suite, floor was used to host a variety of different events, including dinners, auctions and the Comedy Club, but activities have had to be severely limited because of the state of the building. "The building needs a lot of maintenance and we have had recent problems with the roof and the front wall, which are both leaking," said Ms Betts. The plan is to pull down the current building and replace it with a restaurant and bar on the ground floor with large folding doors out onto Swan Street, giving the place a French flavour. Above the restaurant, 15 one- and two- bedroom flats are being proposed. "I believe what Regional Inns want to do is to open the restaurant during the day for lunches, hopefully with the doors open in the summer onto the street," said Ms Betts. "There would also be early evening meals, and then at the weekend it would take on more of a nightclub environment, with the doors shut and catering for people who want to dance, and there will be a time in the evenings when the meals stop." She said PRC Planning was highly experienced in producing plans for this kind of establishment, and was making every effort to ensure that all issues, including noise, were addressed during negotiations with East Hampshire District Council planners. "Our neighbours are very important to us," said Ms Betts. "We hope we have built up a good reputation with those living around us and addressed all the noise problems many years ago." The plan is expected to go before councillors later this year.
