WORK is progressing on the £5 million project to modernise Tower Park with a series of new family-targeted restaurants.

Construction firm Rok - whose Poole office is based just yards from Tower Park - is undertaking the development work.

Rok is currently laying foundations to create a new plaza of restaurants including:

Flame Oriental, an "eat as much as you like" buffet serving a mix of Chinese, Japanese, Indian and Thai cuisine;

Nando's, best known for its peri-peri chicken;

Whitbread Brewer's Fayre pub restaurant offering family food.

KFC will also relocate into a larger unit from its current position within the leisure park.

An open plaza will extend from Splashdown to the UCI cinema, creating outside seating, also for the new restaurants.

Tower Park's existing buildings will be re-clad and the flume tower relocated to make way for the new facilities.

The investment has been wholly funded by Tower Park landlord X-Leisure Fund.

X-Leisure acquired Tower Park in 2003 to add to its portfolio of 18 entertainment and leisure destinations across the country.

X-Leisure chief executive PY Gerbeau (of Millennium Dome fame) said: "Tower Park was one of the very first integrated entertainment centres to open in the UK and it is definitely time to modernise the centre, creating extra facilities and a new front of house image."

Work is due to be completed by the end of summer 2005.

Tower Park will remain fully open as usual throughout the improvements.