Arena in new plan for 'racino'.

ARENA LEISURE has submitted a planning application to Wolverhampton City Council for a pounds 23 million development at the local racecourse, which involves vastly enlarging the existing hotel, adding a health club, swimming pool, and a casino, writes Howard Wright.

The application is a complete revision of a scheme turned down by deputy prime minister John Prescott's department in July 2005.

It represents an initial step on a new route that could lead to Wolverhampton racecourse being the site of Britain's first new casino under the selection process announced by the government last week, which produced one regional, eight large and eight small facilities.

Arena chief executive Mark Elliott said yesterday: "We can't presume anything at this stage because the government has to accept the recommendations of the Casino Advisory Panel, then Wolverhampton City Council has to award the casino licence to us, and finally we have to be granted planning permission.

"But if all these things fall into place, we'd be looking to finish the project in the first half of 2009."

The council supported Arena's original proposals, which were formulated in 2003, even to the point of the Prescott team's inquiry, and named the seven-track racecourse group as its choice during the latest bidding process.

Arena's design team believes it has overcome the criticism of conflicting with the "openness of the [green belt] area," which led to the failure of the previous scheme.