Work to redevelop Weston-super-Mare’s Tropicana site into a new £30m leisure centre could begin this autumn if North Somerset Council approves developer Henry Boot’s planning application on 17 July.

A spokesperson for Henry Boot said the company was confident of obtaining approval: “At the end of the day, the project will bring a £30m investment and help with the regeneration of a Victorian seaside town.”

The facility, to be called Lifestation@Tropicana, will open in late 2010 or early 2011 if construction begins in autumn.

Henry Boot and North Somerset Council are partners in the project, which will contain a six-lane, 25m pool; a water park; a 96-bed hotel; an eight-screen cinema; a 20-lane bowling alley and restaurants and bars.

Poole-based Splashdown will operate the pool and water park area of the facility, and the other units will be run by other individual tenants.

Henry Boot’s plans for the site have provoked some controversy in the Weston-super-Mare community however.

The Western Daily Press has reported that a charitable trust called the Tropicana Regeneration and Development Association (TRADA), which wants to take control of the development, has collected 20,000 signatures opposing Henry Boot’s plans.

English Heritage has also written a letter to North Somerset Council criticising the size, scale and height of the proposed new building, as well as plans to convert much of the existing beach lawns into a hard-surfaced area.

The Henry Boot spokesperson said the company has responded to a local community consultation by reducing the height of the proposed building by 10m, putting some of the beach lawns back into use, and reducing parking on the site of the beach lawns.

The results of the local community consultation showed plenty of support for the project, he said, adding that membership of a supportive Facebook group started by an independent party has reached 500 members.

“The 70,000 people who live here presently have to drive 40 minutes to get to the nearest leisure facility,” the spokesperson said. “This will let people stay and spend money in Weston-super-Mare.”

They added that Henry Boot is also creating the site for tourists to the region.