Development plans for Newton's Cove site in Weymouth

A scaled back development proposal for the former QinetiQ Bincleaves site will be considered by Dorset councillors at a meeting on Thursday.

The company behind the long-awaited project is asking for outline, or in principle, agreement for their ideas – the exact design details to be discussed in the future.

Proposals for the site date back to 2008 with the development originally expected to be completed in time for the 2012 Olympics. Planning consent has been granted to two different schemes in the past, the last in 2016, but both have since lapsed.

The last publicly quoted cost of the development was around £70 million.

CGI of the proposed scheme

There have been long-standing public concerns about the extra traffic it could being to the Boot Hill and Hope Square areas with others concerned about the effect on the area’s coastline views.

The latest plans are for up to 141 homes, a 60-bed care home, gym, swimming pool and spa and up to 1,200 square metres of office or light industrial space, together with a 340square metre restaurant and public open spaces.

The development would also involve works to stabilise cliffs and sea defence protection.

Dorset councillors on the area planning committee are not being guided by officers about which way to vote – being told there are valid arguments to either approve or decline the outline application.

An officer report says that claims by the developer, Poole-based Juno MMXX, that the scheme is unable to offer ‘affordable’ homes has been tested and accepted, largely because of the “specific abnormal costs” for cliff and sea works and public access, although the company will be expected to make a £45,000 contribution to affordable housing elsewhere in the area as well as provide a waterfront pedestrian and cycle route, public loos and other facilities.

The proposed five residential blocks and other buildings have been scaled back - stepping down from six storeys at the north of the site, to four storeys at the breakwater. The proposed care home and townhouses would be three storeys with a four-storey office/light industrial block in the southern area of the site.

The site as it is now  Picture: Trevor Bevins

In total 80 of the properties would be three-bed; 42 one-bed with 11 three-bed apartments and 8 three-bed townhouses.

Weymouth Town Council has raised concerns at each of the recent three public consultations and is still unhappy about the maximum building heights and a proposed construction traffic route via Rodwell Avenue as well as the total lack of affordable homes.