PROPERTY developer David Stevens today vowed to lodge a planning application next month for the first of 90 affordable homes on Portland.

He aims to build 15 houses on a plot at Easton in the first phase of his scheme for low-cost and key worker homes if planners at Weymouth and Portland Borough Council give the go-ahead.

His comments came after he met council chief executive Tom Grainger, management committee chairman Brian Ellis and planning manager Simon Williams yesterday afternoon.

Mr Stevens, 58, who has recently moved from Rampisham to Vanguard Avenue in Weymouth, hopes to hand over the first house in September.

He said: "I will make money out of this but it is also something I believe in quite fervently.

"I have been through the situation of finding a home with my daughter.

"These homes will be built to the latest highest standards that can be achieved. They will probably be above building regulation requirements."

Mr Stevens added: "I intend to put an application in the middle of February. It should then go to committee in April.

"If it goes through, and people certainly want it, then construction will begin in July and we will start handing over the first units in September."

Mr Stevens intends to build the houses under his Foundation Homes South West company. He said he has an option on a site at Easton, which he did not want to name, and will buy the land if the planning application is passed.

He intends to build 15 houses with two bedrooms and sell them for £100,000 each. Twelve of the properties will be for such key workers as nurses and police officers.

Mr Stevens said that flats selling for £75,000 and more £100,000 houses will be built later on more plots of land on which he has an option to buy on Portland.

Mr Stevens hopes the scheme will be backed despite the land being outside the council's development boundaries.

He said that the scheme could go ahead under the Government's stipulations for exception sites which allows affordable housing to be built outside development boundaries.

The comments come after Mr Stevens contacted council management committee chairman Brian Ellis to arrange a meeting about affordable homes.

He met with Mr Grainger, planning manager Mr Williams and Coun Ellis yesterday.

Mr Stevens said the meeting 'did not go brilliantly' and that there was a sticking point over the length of time the homes should be sold on to first-time buyers.

Mr Stevens said that he thought the length of time that the homes should be sold on to first-time buyers to keep them affordable should be 15 years but that the council wanted them to be sold on to first-time buyers for ever.

Coun Ellis said after the meeting that the council operated under government rules that stated that affordable homes must remain affordable.

"Mr Stevens might not have got everything he wanted from the meeting. Now it is for him to put in an application if he wishes. We can't determine an application as it has to be dealt with by the planning committee properly.

"The application will be debated and determined by the committee accordingly."

Coun Ellis added that the council would be happy to meet with any developer that wanted to talk about affordable homes.

Earlier this year Mr Stevens appealed for people to contact him if they were interested in an affordable home.

He said that 140 people contacted him initially, of which 90 living in Weymouth and Portland with local connections then registered with him formally. Thirty-five then paid a refundable deposit of £100 to go on a waiting list for the first homes.

Mr Stevens said: "The majority are from Portland, but all are from Weymouth and Portland. Of these first 15 houses, 12 will be for key workers."