COUNCILLORS have backed plans for developing Weymouth’s old fire station.

The prominent harbourside site was the subject of a fresh planning application for 43 retirement apartments and was recommended for approval by Weymouth and Portland Borough Council officers.

Councillors today backed the scheme saying it was ‘worthy of our town’.

Previous plans to redevelop the site were fiercely opposed.

Architects Ben Penreath & Associates, who have worked closely with master planner Leon Krier at Prince Charles’s Poundbury estate, then came up with a scheme influenced by Georgian Weymouth.

It has been designed to blend in with the nearby historic buildings of old Weymouth and is a totally different approach to a previously rejected plan for the site which was heavily criticised and thrown out at an appeal.

Although it gives the impression of a series of separate buildings, it is still a single large block of flats.