REDEVELOPMENT proposals for ten homes on the Cattistock Lodge site off the Maiden Newton Road have been withdrawn.

The application for four apartments in the main building and another three using outbuildings had been generally accepted – but plans for three mews homes along the access track were opposed by some.

Concerns had also been expressed about the planned removal of trees and the effect the new homes would have on local views.

This week Dorset Council was notified that the application had now been withdrawn which does not preclude the same, or a revised scheme, being submitted in the future.

The scheme had split local opinion with Frome Valley Parish Council claiming the proposal would be an overdevelopment. It said that, as proposed, it would appear urban in its nature, although it supported the principle of redeveloping the brownfield site.

Neighbouring Maiden Newton Parish Council welcomed the application to convert the dilapidated Cattistock Lodge although neighbours wrote in to express concerns about the ‘unwarranted’ removal of mature trees and the effect on views from Chilfrome towards Cattistock and the valley of the River Frome.

Several welcomed the conversion of the lodge building but objected to the mews homes which it is claimed will look out of place and compromise privacy for adjoining properties.

Historic England, in its comments, described the proposed mews homes as a “visually strident addition to the edge of the Conservation Area of an incongruous, suburban character…

“If any development of new housing on this site is to be considered sympathetic to the Conservation Area, it should better respond to this semi-rural, edge-of-settlement location but also to its position within the grounds of Cattistock Lodge,” it said in a submission.

Dorset Council’s conversation officer commented: “It is difficult to see how 3 three bed dwellings, garaging and amenity spaces can be created within the vicinity of this narrow, overgrown dark track.”

The officer’s summary also noted that parking spaces were allocated along the rear elevation of the existing outbuilding, further narrowing the existing access, as well as the access to the rear walled garden/rear courtyard of the main house.

The proposal would have produced two 2-bed homes; seven 3-bed; and one property with four or more bedrooms.