Decision due today on care village planned for Wimborne Market site
Developers are asking to build homes for almost 100 older people on the site of Wimborne Market
Redevelopment plans to turn the Wimborne Market site into a ‘care village’ will be decided today. (13 October)
A special Dorset Council planning meeting will decide on the proposals for almost a hundred homes for older people, a wellness centre, allotments and nine open market homes in the north west corner of the site.
Planning officers are recommending approval for the massive McCarthy & Stone scheme which they say is a good alternative use for the site and will bring in contributions of more than £1m towards affordable homes elsewhere in the area and £111,000 towards protecting Dorset’s heathlands.
Around twenty jobs will also be created by the development.
The 67 apartments will be occupies only by people over 70 and the 32 bungalows and chalet bungalows by those over 65.
Access to the site will be from both Grenville Road and Station Terrace with a hundred parking spaces for the age-restricted homes and 20 for the open market housing.
Public comments on the application include those welcoming the development as a way of clearing up an untidy site which some describe as “an eyesore” while others are unhappy about the loss of the market and the likely increase in traffic for surrounding roads.
A previous application for the two hectare site was refused in July last year with planners concerned about a number of details of the initial proposals.
Since then McCarthy & Stone have revised the application including reducing the height of some buildings and moving the position of others to create a lower profile when compared to surrounding buildings.
Said a company statement at the time: “The amendments to the apartment building facing the site edge onto Station Terrace have reduced the height of the projecting north wing from three storeys to two storeys and the recessed roof element has been reconfigured, and the roof profile has been amended at the south end to further step down the line of the eaves.”