A MAJOR planning inquiry is looming in Christchurch after councillors rejected a large-scale sheltered flats development at Highcliffe for the second time in less than a year.

Retirement housing developers McCarthy and Stone had already appealed against the council's decision last summer to refuse permission for 55 warden-assisted apartments in a single block up to four storeys high on the site of four detached homes in Wortley Road.

And the borough's planning control committee - cut to just three members through absences and the withdrawal of the vice-chairman Cllr Malcolm Mawbey who declared a personal interest as a near neighbour - unanimously refused an amended scheme.

Now a three-day local inquiry opening in July at the council's offices in Bridge Street to hear the original appeal is also expected to consider a challenge to the latest refusal.

More than 250 objections had been received to the revised plans which apart from a lowered roof line in a bid to overcome earlier reasons for refusal still showed a single block of 55 flats bordering the village recreation ground and homes in Wortley Road and Wharncliffe Gardens.

Highcliffe Residents Association chairman Peter Martin told the committee a poll among members had shown overwhelming opposition to replacement buildings of more than two storeys and further provision of purpose-built homes for the elderly in an area.

Wharncliffe Road resident Ian Rickman also slammed the scale of the development in terms of size, height and density, warning it would dominate the skyline and overshadow nearby homes.

Cllr Chris Legg described the scheme as a "retirement ghetto" and claimed assisted living for the elderly would be assisting the death of Highcliffe.

"I think this is a disaster. The building is ugly and it is just going to be one large concrete block," he said.

Planning committee chairman and west Highcliffe ward councillor David Jones likened the proposals to Strangeways prison and said: "This development is completely out of character.

"It is not acceptable for a small seaside village."

First published: May 9