Concerns have been voiced about open ponds proposed for a large Chickerell housing development.

Some district councillors backed the town council plea for fencing around three ponds on the site – while a neighbour said she was concerned about the risk of flooding.

But West Dorset planners were told they were a landscape feature, as well as helping deal with surface water, and would be safety assessed before they were built.

Dorchester Cllr Stella Jones said she feared that a toddler could easily fall into one of the ponds, even though they might be shallow – backing a plea from the parish council that they should be fenced.

“When something has happened it’s too late,” she said.

The West Dorset planning committee, meeting on Thursday, were debating the details of the 30-acre site at Bank and Ridge Farms to the west of School Hill which already has outline permission for 292 homes, granted to C G Fry and Sons Ltd earlier in the year.

Chickerell and Chesil Bank councillor Jean Dunseith said she had raised the safety risk of the ponds with the company at the consultation stage but had been reassured that they would be safe.

Planning officer Hamish Laird told the committee that despite the concerns of the town council and councillors at the committee over the risk of someone falling in the ponds officers had decided that fencing “would not be appropriate.”

“They are fairly shallow and people will understand not to go in them…they are part of the landscaping and part of the public open space,” he said.

Committee chairman Cllr Fred Horsington said he could understand local worries, recalling that a child had drowned in a balancing pond in Chickerell a few years ago.

Neighbour to the development, Julie Cleaver, said she was worried that one of the ponds would be immediately at the back of her house in North Square and could lead to flooding of her, and neighbour’s properties, if breached.

“These attenuation ponds have failed before. There has been a case in Devon,” she said.

Spokesman for C G Fry & Sons, Simon Coles, told the committee that the flood risk had been thoroughly dealt with and technical experts for the council had calculated that the risk of flooding in the area would be less once the ponds had been built, than at the present.

Cllr Dominic Elliot said that if ponds were going to be fenced in it wouldn’t be long before every river, ditch and lake in the country had to have a fence around it.

“I am not in favour of pond fences,” he said, admitting that, as a child he had fallen into ponds and even through ice into water.

Highways officer Ian Madgwick said there would be an assessment of safety issues before the ponds were built: “The risk will be looked at in the same way we assess the risk on a roadway…the flood authority will decide whether fencing is needed, or not.”

Mrs Cleaver also raised concerns over parking in the area which she said was already difficult and was likely to get worse during the construction phase and once the 292 houses were occupied.

Mr Laird said that the scheme would be built in five phases, starting at the eastern edge with the final phase seeing Courage Way opened up to the main road – a route which several letter writers to the council claim will become “a rat run.”

The scheme includes more than a hundred social housing units, two-thirds of them one or two-bed.

The majority of the homes on the site will be three-bed with 51 private four-bed homes and four private five-bed properties.

Planning officers say the scale of the scheme and materials proposed reflects those on the adjoining Chesil Bank development and are generally two stories high which they say is acceptable.

The committee approved by a majority vote the details of the reserved matters, which includes the layout, landscaping and materials to be used as well as the use of the three attenuation, or balancing ponds.

Speaking after the meeting Cllr Tim Yarker, West Dorset District Council’s Portfolio Holder for Housing, said: “The approval of this reserved matters application is great news and means work can start on site in the near future.

“Having more homes built in the area is a key objective of our Opening Doors programme.

“As part of this programme, we have started a Home Ownership Register to gauge housing demand and find out the size and locations of homes wanted. As part of this we also forward on details of upcoming developments.

“I would recommend anyone looking to own their own home to sign up to the register.”