AN outline planning application or up to 150 homes has been submitted to Dorset Council for a site at Blandford St Mary.

The six hectare farmland site is north of Wards Drove and comes from Bristol-based Hallam Land Management.

It includes open space for recreation and an “ecological buffer”, new car and pedestrian access, including from the North Dorset Trailway, parking, and drainage works.

The site is immediately behind an existing housing development which is already underway just off the Tesco roundabout off the A354 Blandford bypass and west of the A350 Bournemouth Road.

Thirty per cent of the new homes, if approved, will be classified as ‘affordable’, including for affordable rent, the exact configuration to be decided during the planning process.

A design statement with the application says that the development will be at an average development density of 37.84 dwellings per hectare with what it describes as ‘generous’ space between existing hedges and trees and boundary homes with some trees retained as landmark features.

The application is currently available for public comment via the Dorset Council website.