New plans to build dozens of homes around Weymouth Football Club's stadium
Lovell Homes are asking for planning consent for more than 32 affordable properties
Another attempt is being made to build homes alongside Weymouth Football Club's Bob Lucas Stadium.
Lovell Homes is asking planning consent for more than 32 ‘affordable’ properties and 70 parking spaces off Radipole Lane on a 1.3 hectare site.
The company says that it wants to offer 26 three-bed homes and 6 two-bed in a range of detached, semi-detached and short terraces.
They would be available, if approved, on both an affordable rent and shared ownership basis.
Access to the L-shaped site, which wraps around the stadium’s main stand, is proposed off the Wessex Roundabout.
Over the years a number of housing applications have suggested on various parcels of land close to the stadium, including one for up to 170 homes which was rejected in 2013 which would have resulted in the loss of the stadium.
Other schemes have followed, some being taken to appeal, including a 2020 application where a planning inspector expressed concerns about a new, additional access off the roundabout, claiming it could be dangerous for cyclists and pedestrians.
A planning agent for Lovell Homes says the proposals will result in the loss of existing match day parking immediately alongside the stand, although other land has been transferred back to the football club to the north of the stadium which could be used for parking.
The agent claims that affordable housing outside ‘existing settlement boundaries’ is generally held to be acceptable in planning terms and that the county has an estimated need for 767 affordable houses each year – which is mostly not being met.
They argue that the scheme would benefit local housing need, the economy of the area and believe that the homes have been designed to have a ‘comfortable relationship’ with the football stadium with a ‘buffer zone’ between the homes and the stadium itself.
The one public comment on the proposal so far, claims the application, will “steal” the football club’s parking.
The planning application, Dorset Council ref 2022-05244, remains open for public comment until the 14 October.