New homes agreed for former gas container site in Weymouth
20 new homes will be built opposite Weymouth Marina
Plans for more than twenty homes have been agreed on a Weymouth harbourside site – almost a year after first proposed.
Dorset Council has agreed that the development on the former Southern Electric depot off Westwey Road can go ahead.
Landmark Estates had asked for consent for the demolition of the former switchgear building and the construction of 23 homes and 50 parking spaces on the site of just under an acre. The site was last used as a depot by the power company in 1996.
A previous application for a similar number of houses on the site was withdrawn in 2015 after concerns by the Health and Safety Executive at a time when the gas holders were still on the site, although not in use. These have since been removed.
The new application said that comments about the design made at that time of the first application have been taken into account in the new scheme.
Affordable housing
It proposes 16 open market three-bed homes with the rest of the site a mix of one and two bed flats for affordable use.
Access to the site will be off Westwey Road, Granville and Stavordale Roads, with a ‘landmark’ terrace of houses at the front of the site facing onto the marina, with a second layer of housing toward the rear of the site and a ‘gateway’ block of apartments on the opposite side of the Westwey Road entrance, adjacent to the terraced properties.
Public feedback
Only ten public responses were received about the proposals – several raising concerns about the additional traffic likely to be generated in adjoining roads and a loss of parking spaces at Jenner Court.
Other worries included what some saw as a lack of communal space for the flats, the small size of some of the homes and the loss of views for some neighbouring properties.