DISTRICT planning chiefs have nodded through an application to build 52 new homes at Charminster, which will eventually link up with a 70 home development already under construction in the Dorset village.

West Dorset District Council (WDDC) planning committee members gave the green light to the Wyatt Homes development, despite a number of objections, mainly on road safety issues, from concerned residents and Charminster Parish Council.

The 2.5-hectare farmland site, off Wanchard Lane, Charminster, lays directly to the north of a 70-home development already under construction by Wyatt Homes.

WDDC ward councillor Timothy Yarker addressed committee members before they ruled on the application.

Cllr Yarker, who echoed parish council concerns about traffic using Weir View – which is currently the only planned access to the new site - said: “I would urge you that if you are minded to approve this application it would be subject to access off Wanchard Lane.”

Committee members were told there had been three recorded collisions on Wanchard Lane in the past five years, and one accident on Weir View during the same period.

Planning committee vice chairman Cllr Nigel Bundy, who acknowledged the traffic concerns, said: "On balance I will be recommending approval.”

Eighteen of the properties in the latest application, essentially phase two of the ongoing adjacent development, will be classed as affordable dwellings. The rest of the estate, comprising of three and four-bedroomed houses, would be for the open market.

Some residents believe the two schemes together represent over development in the village.

Also, Wessex Water say the site is in a groundwater flood risk area where there is a “high risk of foul sewer inundation during periods of prolonged wet weather leading to sewer flooding.”

The utility company has called for a groundwater management strategy and a scheme for surface water drainage.

During Thursday's (Sept 13) planning committee meeting, at South Walks House, Dorchester, committee members were told that by the end of this year 50 per cent of the homes in phase one of the development would be occupied.

It is also likely that Wyatt Homes will later submit an application for even more homes next to the current application site, members were told.