WORK has started on the next phase of the Brewery Square development in Dorchester.

Diggers have rolled on to the site to begin the main road, drains, utilities infrastructure and foundations for buildings.

The rolling programme of works over the next 18 months will include the heart of the new development – including the main square, fountain and cinema.

Brewery Square co-director Andrew Wadsworth said: “It is very satisfying to see work having started.

“The work will form the real heart of the development.”

The work will include a 600 metre long run road running the length of the site as well as work on new buildings.

They will include the Bonded Stores, Fairfield Apartment, the cinema, Screen House, the Ammonite Building and the Cooperage.

Apartments have pre-sold out from plans or are close to selling out in most of the blocks on the site.

The include penthouses costing £595,000 and a million pounds.

The work, the first part of the second of three phases in the development, will take place over the next 16 to 18 months.

There will be a staggered hand over of buildings as the work is completed.

As well as the three screen cinema, fountain and new eco-friendly Dorchester South railway station, there will be a Pizza Express, Café Rouge and Hobbs shop.

Prices range from £150,00 to £475,000 for apartments and duplexes, with penthouses costing from £295,000 to £1million The Eldridge Pope brewery was established on the Weymouth Avenue site in 1879 and stopped brewing in 2003.