A FORMER coal yard is to be turned into a housing estate with 29 homes close to the Moreton railway station.

And a large number of the homes will be affordable to help families on lower incomes.

The 22 new houses and seven flats will be created next to a site already earmarked for 14 new homes, which are still to be built.

The scheme represents a significant batch of new homes in one of the rural villages to the west of Wareham.

Councillors at Purbeck council were told that the scheme had a high percentage of affordable housing - some 35 per cent of the development.

The site at Moreton, which was used as a brick works in the late 1800s before becoming a coal yard, is close to the railway station and will be made up of houses and also flats in a block either two-and-a-half or three storeys high.

Nearby resident Martin Linford told Purbeck planners he was concerned that the scheme might invade the privacy of his home because of the height of the flats' building.

Ken Morgan, agent for the developer, said the scheme was still in its outline draft and the height of the block of flats could be altered.

A current access point to the coal yard via Station and Brickyard Cottages is to be closed and used for pedestrian-only access, with cars being driven into the scheme through an access road from the B3390 through the still-to-be-built housing to the south.

Concerns were raised about drainage on the site and whether there was enough parking space or whether residents would try to park in the nearby railway station car park.

But Cllr David Budd said: "I think this is a sensible addition to the previously approved scheme."

The planning board approved the scheme.

First published: October 4