COUNCILLORS are being urged to refuse permission for a Betterment Properties scheme to build six flats on land in Weymouth.

Members of tomorrow's Weymouth and Portland Borough Council planning and traffic committee will be told that two applications for three and four homes in Westdowne Close have already been turned down in the last year.

The latest application is for six one-bedroom flats, but the committee will be told that plans contain no amenity space or external sitting out area while landscaping consists of strips of land along the periphery of the site.

The site itself is the former farmhouse for the disused May Farm which would be demolished.

A report to the meeting says: 'The applicant's landscaping details do little to overcome the poor layout and lack of land needed for this size of development.

'It is considered that the proposed landscape and amenity space is of limited practical value and would likely result in unresolvable neighbour complaints contrary to Local Plan policies.' The report adds that the design does pick up quite well on the detail and proportions of Westdowne House - a nearby large detached Grade II listed building.

But it adds that 'the density and site layout leave little space for the needs of landscaping and amenity space which would be inappropriate in the context of this site'.

The committee will be asked to refuse permission for the scheme because it is a cramped form of over-development, would hit the character and appearance of a listed building and does not meet the criteria for flat development as set out in the Weymouth and Portland Local Plan.