An application to demolish an existing chalet-style home off the A31 Ringwood Road at St Leonards and St Ives and build a block of 15 flats is being recommended for approval.

The site, at 184 Ringwood Road, shares a dropped kerb access with a next-door BP petrol station, a site shared with M&S Simply Food.

Dorset Council’s eastern area planning committee, which meets in Wimborne on Wednesday 11th, will be told that the proposal is acceptable and should be allowed to go ahead, subject to conditions, including a contribution to an affordable housing fund.

The application has been submitted by Harbourwood Homes Ltd and has been amended from an earlier proposal. Nine of the flats will be 2-bed, the rest 1-bed.

New plans show a 2.5 to 3 storey building with a hipped roof with 13 unallocated parking spaces to the rear, two at the front, and space for cycle storage and bins.

The parish council objected to the application claiming it would increase the danger to motorists using the slip road and to drivers turning into and out of Garden Lane, on the corner of the site. It also claims that only allowing one parking space for each flat is inadequate and will lead to on-street parking in Woolsbridge Road.

Similar views came from some of the 41 public comments on the scheme with others complaining about the potential for their homes to be overlooked, light pollution, the loss of trees and the design being out of character with the area.
One letter of support said the development would improve the area and provide housing for the younger generation.

Neither Dorset Highways or the Department of Transport have objected to the new homes – subject to some alterations to the site access.