HOMES for students and key workers could be included in a newly-proposed Poole town centre development.

Food store chain Aldi has put in an outline application to build a 12-storey block on the Pitwines gas site.

It includes a pharmacy and medical centre as well as 201 homes for students and medical workers.

The plans have been submitted along with an application for a food store and 12 or 13 flats above that.

Poole planning officer Doug Evans, said: "Whether there is a need for this type of accommodation in the town centre will be one of the issues looked at.

"It is too early to say if it is the right sort of accommodation in the right place."

A date has not yet been set for the application to go before Poole council's planning committee.

Although the council stipulates a developer must provide some kind of affordable housing in a planning application, Mr Evans said Aldi had chosen to build homes for students and key workers. The council had not stipulated this was needed.

Aldi's plans come shortly after 64 affordable homes were provided with the new Asda in West Quay Road, which opened in September last year.

The 11-storey tower above the supermarket should be opened soon.

Work began on the Pitwines site - now called the Poole Quarter - more than a year ago to clear contamination from the land and build 512 homes.

The one and two-bed flats cost £159,950 and the homes in the first phase range up to three and four bedroom townhouses costing up to £350,000.

The development is likely to provide a community of 1,500 to 2,000 people within walking distance of the town centre

A sales office is now open on the site and the first residents are expected to move in this July.

First published: May 24