PLANS to demolish a house in Salisbury Road, Blandford and build nine 3-bed houses on the site has been refused.

Dorset Council decided the application for the Larksmead House site at 101 Salisbury Road, would be an overdevelopment and harmful to protected trees. Other applications, dating back 20 years to redevelop the site have also been refused including an application for five detached houses and another for ten flats.

The latest application, with the houses in blocks of two, with one block of three, also included twenty parking spaces, an increase of 15 over the existing.

Blandford Town Council said that while it was not, in principle, against redeveloping the site it did object to what it described as the ‘cramped form of the development’ with buildings not in keeping with the area.

Neighbours objections included similar points and concerns about highway safety, water run-off and biodiversity.

A summary report of the objections said the development “represents an overdevelopment of the site that does not respect the prevailing pattern of development. In addition to this, the amount of hard landscaping proposed is considered to erode the verdant appearance of the site to the detriment of the character of the area.”