EVESHAM'S biggest nightclub is set to close when the company that owns it opens a new club in the town.

Marilyn's nightclub, in Bridge Street, will probably close when the new club in the former High Street bingo hall opens, said Ciaran MacCana, managing director of Marilyn's Leisure Ltd, which owns the two sites.

Planning notices have now gone up at the former bingo hall site as the company has submitted an application for the external alterations it wants to make to turn the site into a nightclub.

The plans include a two-storey building with an all-day caf bar on the ground floor and a nightclub above it.

Mr MacCana said the plans were for the external alterations only, but said: "We have got a lot of consultations to do before the internal plans are fully-formed."

The company is working with soundproofing consultants to minimise any noise from the building and the final capacity of the club and bar has also still to be settled, although Marilyn's has previously said it would be more than 1,000.

The existing steps from the High Street leading to the recessed doorway will disappear and be replaced with a largely glass frontage and new windows will be installed on the Oat Street frontage.

Planning permission has already been given for the change of use at the site and Mr MacCana is hopeful the detailed plans will not meet with any planning problems.

"Work is going to finish at the end of the summer," he said, adding that he expected the new, as yet unnamed, club to open early next year. The existing Marilyn's will then close.

"I think it will probably employ about 50 staff," he said of the new site.