145 people sign petition against 36 new homes for Weymouth
The development is planned for a field off Mandeville Road
A petition with more than 145 signatures, Weymouth Civic Society and Chickerell Town Council are the latest to object to an outline plan for 36 homes off Mandeville Road.
A previous, larger, application for the site was turned down two years ago.
Many of the objectors claim that to build on the field would be harmful to the Heritage Coast and nearby sites of Special Scientific Interest as well as putting local wildlife at risk.
There have also been concerns about additional traffic and whether local services would be able to cope with the additional people.
Chickerell town council says the site is beyond the defined development boundary and just outside a recognised wildlife corridor. It says to build there would impact on the Fleet and Heritage Coast.
Weymouth Civic Society has particular objections to four bungalows along Mandeville Road which it claims would block off an important local gap, both for views and wildlife.
“This green wedge of land has been protected, both in this area as part of the Heritage Coast, and on the slopes above Curtis Fields as an Important Open Gap and Land of Local Landscape Importance,” said the Society statement to Dorset Council.
Weymouth town council is also among the groups to object, saying no further development should take place until highways improvements at the top of Lanehouse Rocks Road are undertaken.
The 145-signature petition has been collected by the Dorset Green Spaces group saying in its comments that the plan is contrary to a number of environment policies in the Local Plan – also raising points about the ‘damage’ to the Heritage Coast, wildlife and the effects of increase traffic along Camp Road to the junction with Lanehouse Rocks Road.
More than twenty individuals have also now written to Dorset Council, most objecting to the proposals.
Ward councillors for adjoining Rodwell and Wyke, Clare Sutton and Brian Heatley, say that the special open character of the area could be at risk by the proposed development.
Said Cllr Heatley: “Any decision, even one relating to a relatively modest development that erodes the extent of the Heritage Coast, will create a precedent that might encourage further development elsewhere along the Heritage Coast. Because this decision may in practice have consequences beyond this particular development, the decision should be taken by committee, not by delegation to an officer.”
Said one of the public objectors: “We already have 600 houses being built by Betterment Homes on Curtis Fields. In Chickerell we have in excess of 1,000 houses and 37 homes on Value House.”
The new application, which is in principle only, shows two designs for three-bed terraced homes and three-bed bungalows.
One illustration shows four bungalows and a new road access off Mandeville Road and two lines of houses running parallel to Mandeville Close, in terraces of two.
The site is currently an open field on the approach to the former Value House store site, which is currently being developed for housing.
Agents, Planning Base Ltd, say the proposal would not be an isolated or sporadic development but would in-fill the section between an existing bungalow to the north-west and the Mandeville Close.
They say the proposal will not affect the wildlife in the area and the developer will ensure that dog walkers can continue to use the majority of the field.
A previous application in the area for 91 homes was refused in March 2019 fearing that the development would effectively merge Wyke Regis and Lanehouse, because of the impact on the Heritage Coast, drainage concerns and the effect the number of homes would have on the ecology of the area.