News, sport and entertainment from the Bournemouth Echo and Dorset Echo.

Firm aims to build 77 more homes on island

From the Echo, first published Wednesday 12th Dec 2001.

A MAJOR housing development on Portland is poised to go into its second phase with an application to build 77 homes at Southwell.

Betterment Properties is already building 41 homes as part of the first phase of development on land at the end of Reap Lane.

Now the firm has applied for the second phase which would be built on land between Reap Lane and Sweethill Lane.

Senior planning officer Chris Moscrop said both sites were recognised as being earmarked for housing under the Weymouth and Portland Local Plan.

He added: "This second phase, for 77 homes, will include 22 three and four-bedroom detached homes, 18 two and three-bedroom semi-detached homes and 37 two or three-bedroom terraced homes.

"That will bring the total of new homes for this site at Sweethill to 118.

"This application will now be processed and the likelihood is that it will go before the planning sub-committee of January or even February next year."

Weymouth and Portland Mayor Coun Chris McGown, whose Tophill West ward contains the proposed new housing development, said that he hoped any planning permission granted for the scheme contained a condition that some of the homes must be built for disabled people.

He added: "I hope that the developers will include some provision for homes for the disabled.

"Hopefully there will be a condition attached to permission for this second phase to ensure that disabled people, who already have a tougher life than most of us, can have a chance to live in a home built to their needs.

"These houses are called Homes for Life and they provide a very important facility for the whole community so disabled people can be integrated into the community to enjoy as rewarding a life as possible.

"The homes themselves have been identified as being needed in the Weymouth and Portland Local Plan, but we must ensure that anything being built here is of the highest possible quality."

The second phase application will now be considered by councillors on January 9 or at a later meeting on February 6.

Archive Home