Dorset holiday site expansion approved
Once built it will almost double the number of homes at the site
A 90 home extension to the Silverlake holiday complex at Crossways has been signed off by Dorset planners.
Once built it will almost double the number of homes at the former gravel pits site.
The sixth and seventh phases, Dundas Bay and Deanesly Point, will include some community buildings and communal areas.
Work on the development, based around a former quarry site, has been underway for more than a decade by the Habitat First Group. When it is finished it could have up to a thousand holiday homes on its 560 acres with a country club, hotel and other leisure facilities, together with areas set aside for nature.
The Silverlake development, which expected to be built over a 20-30 year period, is estimated to be likely to bring in £21.8 million of visitor spending each year once completed, supporting 470 jobs of which at least 180 will be local, including 123 on-site.
The latest phase, which is to the northeast of the overall site beside a lake, will include a games room and gym and covered storage for boats and bikes.
The first three villages on the site at Beaumont Village (31 homes), Wakeling Island (26) and Overton Island (34) are all sold. The fourth, 34 dwellings at Baxter’s Rise is partially completed and 38 houses at Shepperd’s View have not yet started. In total 110 dwellings are now occupied.
The latest phase only attracted only one public comment – from the Ramblers Association which requested an existing public footpath on the site to be improved and extended, asking the developers to consider other new routes in their future plans.