An Ashby town councillor has suggested a new cinema could be built on the site of a proposed storage and maintenance facility.

Ashby de la Zouch Town Council has again objected to the scheme - scheduled for Lountside at Flagstaff Island - when the proposals were re-submitted to Monday night's planning committee.

A detailed objection has also been made by the Premier Inn hotel to the plan which would see works traffic operating from a site opposite to them.

But Cllr Dan Harrison says it would make more sense to turn the area into a leisure site with many of the facilities already in place.

Cllr Harrison - who is also the chairman of Leicestershire County Council - encouraged the possibility of making Flagstaff an entertainment venue, with a cinema considered to be an ideal option.

He told the committee: "I think this is a brilliant site for a cinema for Ashby.

"We have to think pro-actively and we need to do positive things like this.

"There's already a restaurant there, you could go there and walk across to the cinema.

"It's only a thought."

The current planning application has now been thrown out three times by the council on the grounds of there being noise and disturbance, hazardous materials and highway issues.

Cllr Harrison added: "It is important because it is going to damage the only hotel we have in Ashby now.

"And to put the clumsy, monstrosity of a building there, you have to think of all the noisy lorries coming in and out.

'It's absolutely disastrous and does not follow the original plan.

"It would kill off the hotel and be an absolute carbuncle at the entrance to Ashby forever and a day.

"We have to be diligent about this.

"The land has value as it stands."