A NEW proposal for five homes on a site at Tower Hill, Bere Regis has split local opinion.

A previous development scheme for the site was thrown out on the casting vote of the area planning committee chairman earlier in the year.

There had been concerns expressed about how two of the new homes, facing onto the road, might overlook properties on the opposite side – despite the developer, Simon Blackmore, having reduced their height from the original design and offered to widen the road by two metres.

The site, with a large 1960s detached house, Tower House, together with another site nearby, had been proposed for housing in the 2019 Village Plan.

The latest proposals for the Tower House site, from the same developer, detail four 3-bed semi-detached homes and one of 4-bedrooms to the north of the plot, in a row stretching up the hill, with parking on the 0.3 hectare plot for ten or eleven vehicles. The existing building is proposed for demolition.

The latest proposals will maintain the bank to the front of the site; keep the hedge at the top of the plot, with the hedge along the eastern side to be retained and improved, if necessary.

Bere Regis parish council has supported the latest application, telling Dorset Council that the previous reservations about developing the site appear to have been resolved.

But several residents have expressed different views with concerns over increased traffic on the narrow lanes which lead to West Street, fears of overlooking for properties in Tower Hill and Butt Lane and additional pressure on what some claim is an already struggling sewage system.

Almost all the objectors express concerns about the additional traffic that five homes could bring in an era of multi-car ownership for many households.

Said one objection: “There are rarely spaces on Butt Lane or West Street to accommodate any extra cars. Tower Hill is already a busy narrow access way for Barrow Hill, Boswell’s Close and Snow Hill lane, with very few passing places.”

Public comments on the application have now closed.

 

Illustration – Site layout and plans

Pic – Tower Hill, showing the site entrance on the right

Pic – Looking into the Tower House plot

Pic – Butt Lane which runs alongside one edge of the plot

Pic – The Tower House site

Illustration – Proposed site layout