AN application for seven detached homes in Church Street, Upwey has been withdrawn.

The proposals had brought objections from the Upwey Society, Weymouth Civic Society and neighbours.

Weymouth Civic Society says the application site is within an area designated as an ‘Important Open Gap’ and within the Upwey Conservation Area, as well as being outside the development boundary.

“The fact that the plan for housing on the land west of Miles Gardens was allowed on appeal, contrary to the wishes of local people and the Council itself, strengthens the need to resist development of this site on Church Street, to prevent further erosion of the important open gap separating the village from the ribbon development of Dorchester Road,” said the Society in a formal objection to the scheme.

The Upwey Society told Dorset Council that the homes would be out of keeping with the Local Plan and would put further pressure on the drainage and sewerage systems in the area: “We understand that Wessex Water has agreed that the sewerage system in Upwey is totally inadequate for current levels, let alone any increased discharges. It is a 100 year old system that was designed to cope with a significantly lower number of houses than are now feeding into it.”

Many of the objections were refuted by agent for the applicants, Richard Burgess, including concerns from Dorset Wildlife Trust about badgers and bats.

He disputed that flooding was attributed to homes in the area: “We understand that when the county land drainage engineers investigated complaints about surface water flooding in the area they properly attributed it to flows from the fields at the rear of Upwey/Elwell St coming down the ditch on the northern boundary of the site,” he said.

A request for more information about the reasons for the withdraw of the application, or whether or not a new application will be submitted for the site, has not been responded to.