STUDENT accommodation will be offered at the Freshwater Biological Association River Laboratory near Wareham for the first time.

The Laboratory, on the banks of the River Frome at Church Lane, East Stoke, has been granted planning permission to convert offices and a library to provide accommodation for students working there – after problems in finding suitable ‘digs’ locally.

Drawings show the creation of four bedrooms with a shared living/dining and kitchen area, showers and toilets.

The facilities will be used by students mainly from Queen Mary University London, Bournemouth University, the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust and the Freshwater Biological Association.

The decision, an exception to normal planning rules, was taken because many students were having difficulty in finding, affordable local accommodation while studying and working at the research centre. Normally new accommodation in the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and in the flood plain for the river, would not be allowed.

The centre provides one of the longest lasting ecological surveys undertaken anywhere in the world, often involving students and their scientist supervisors having to work anti-social hours.

Although the accommodation can cater for up to four students the Association says that, generally, they expect to only have one or two students in residence for up to eight months a year East Stoke parish council offered no comment or objection to the proposals.

Dorset Council’s planning case officer, who decided the application, said that normally residential accommodation would not be allowed in the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty but the external changes to the building would be minimal and the use justified an exception to be made.

The Association, which was founded in the 1920s, bought the East Stoke site in 1957, opening it in 1963 with its main headquarters at Windermere.

Illustration – The proposed student accommodation at the Fresh Water Biological Association River Laboratory near Wareham.