UNPOPULAR plans to tear down a hotel and replace it with housing have been thrown out.

Developers wanted to build seven houses and five flats - four affordable - on the site of Hambury Hotel in West Lulworth.

But planning chiefs at a Purbeck District Council planning board meeting last week unanimously agreed to turn down the plan.

They said the houses would be crammed in, too close to the road and out of keeping with the conservation area around them.

Chairman of the meeting, Cllr Julie Wheeldon, said: "The whole thing is a total hotch-potch. I do not see that it fits into the village scene at all."

Residents spoke at the meeting on a range of concerns, including over-development of the site, lack of parking, dangerous road access, and loss of open space and hotel accommodation in the area.

They were also worried a house in the grounds of the hotel would be demolished for car parking space- although it was not clearly stated in Truline Developments' plans.

The neighbours said a couple lived there and were devastated their home, Wellington Cottage, might be torn down as they had no intention of selling.

Vivienne King, from West Lulworth Parish Council, said: "It is alarming in the application there is no reference to Wellington Cottage.

"It seems it has been included as part of the hotel to be demolished. It has been the childhood and married home of one of them for 35 years.

"This application should be refused."

Resident Avril Dale, from Main Road, said: "Fifty-seven per cent of the new houses will be built on land that has never been built on which is currently open space.

"If this land is to be built on I suggest that green open spaces are retained as garden for the new homes."

The Hambury Hotel is a large modern building in a Dorset Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), Heritage Coast and West Lulworth Conservation Area. It is also near to a number of listed buildings.

Another application for the site was submitted earlier this year but refused for being an over-development of the site and inappropriate in the West Lulworth Conservation Area.

First published: November 1