A PETITION and more than forty comments have been lodged over plans to demolish a bungalow in East Street, Beaminster to make way for five homes.

Dorset Council is deciding the application for the 82 East Street site – to replace the building with three 3-bed home and two of 4-beds, or more.

The application anticipates an increase from two to twelve parking spaces on the site.

As a result of the comments and a petition changes have been made to the original scheme to now include a new pedestrian-only access to create a safer route for people walking to, or from Beaminster town centre.

Other alterations include moving three of the plots to maintain views, changing some windows and altering the original parking scheme to reduce the impact on a wildlife area in the garden at 92 East Street.

Beaminster Town Council has recommend refusal on the grounds that the site is outside the Defined Development Boundary and that the proposals do not include any affordable housing.

The town council say the development will also generate extra traffic and pedestrian movements along East Street, a street that is narrow in places and with no footway, which they say was highlighted in a refusal of a previous application in 2015.

A petition signed by more than 20 residents in East Street, Woodswater and Hollymoor Lane says they oppose the scheme because of the ‘obvious and apparent danger’ of the narrow road and restricted entrance to the site; the added risk to pedestrians in East Street where there is no footpath and the extra burden on what the petition describes as a ‘dated’ sewage system.

Dorset Highways say that, having looked at accident figures for the area, and the proposal for a four-home increase on the site they could not justify an objection to the scheme which would be sustainable if taken to appeal.

A decision on the revised application is expected to be made by a planning officer under delegated powers unless one of the local councillors asks for the application to be determined by an area planning committee.