A NEW homes scheme for Owermoigne could have self-build properties on development.

An outline planning application for a 0.4 hectare plot off Moreton Road asks that six homes be allowed with two or more of the detached properties being for a self-build project and four of the six being reserved for local people only.

The developer hopes to legally tie the 'local' homes to continue to be low cost for future buyers on the housing register when they are resold - and to continiue to be subject to a local occupancy restriction.

The proposed site, described as a former agricultural-builders yard, is on the northern side of the village, 400m to the north of the A352 and outside the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, The Heritage Coastline and The Village Conservation Area.

In the proposal document, which will go before Dorset Council in the coming weeks, the applicant, David Chalstrey, who gives an address in the same road, says that the last 23 house sales in the village, since May 2015, went for an average price of £433,907 – with 70 per cent of the buyers at retirement age and almost half coming to live in Dorset from outside the county.

A report to an area planning committee, which will decide the application, says: “The availability of affordable housing has been further reduced by the sale of council houses during the 1980s through the Right to Buy scheme. Local occupancy restrictions related to these sales on some of the former stock have helped local people buy but the supply is woefully low. “

If approved the site would have a pair of semi detached dwellings subject to a local occupancy restriction, one being a two bedroom dwelling and the other a three bedroom dwelling; two detached dwellings for entry to the local authority ‘self build’ register, available to local people and subject to a local occupancy restriction and two open market detached homes also available for self build.

The application, which is available to view at local planning offices and online, is open for comment until May 21st.