AMBITIOUS new plans to redevelop the Maltings and Central car park to create a “front door” to Salisbury were unveiled at a public meeting last night (Tuesday).

The designs - described as "emerging ideas" - include a 17-metre wide riverside walkway heading south into the site, flanked by big-name stores on the right and a “re-engineered” River Avon on the left, without the steep drop to the water.

This two-tiered promenade will lead into an informal square, or “performance area”, surrounded by restaurants and shops, with housing on the first floor, some of which will be affordable.

Market Walk will no longer be a tunnel; the archway will be removed to provide a brighter route to the rest of the city centre.

The aim is to link the commercial hub of the Market Place with the new “cultural quarter” where the City Hall and Playhouse will be joined by a new multiplex cinema that developers say can co-exist with the Odeon.

Plans include a hotel on the Summerlock Approach side of the development, and moving the library, possibly to where the British Heart Foundation shop is currently in Fisherton Street.

Although the scheme retains a large amount of parking - on three levels - none of it will be long-stay.

Commuters and those working in the city will be expected to use park-and-ride, as will coaches after they have dropped tourists in the centre.

The very mention of park-and-ride brought groans and shouts of “rubbish” from the audience. Councillor Richard Clewer said parking was critical.

A planning application is not expected until summer 2018, with the first of two, 18-month building phases set to start in late 2019, much later than recent estimates.

Architect Ian Williams from Haskoll said the Maltings had always been “a bit of a backwater” and needed better links to the rest of the city.

He said they were keen to consult the public and listen to feedback before making any planning application.

There was “no intention” of asking for compulsory purchase orders on the flats currently above shops in the Maltings.

Questions about how delivery lorries would access the site, avoiding two railway bridges without clogging up the city centre roads, remain unanswered.

Despite public demand for a transport hub with better links to the station, the current plans do not envisage this.

The packed meeting, attended by about 140 people, was hosted by Salisbury Civic Society.

The developers would not release any images used in the presentation and would not reveal any detail about what the “anchor store” might be.