DEVELOPERS are hoping to bolster their chances of new homes on a Weeke street by submitting a second application for the site.

Alfred Homes lodged an application with Winchester City Council to build an extra care/assisted living accommodation for older people, alongside McCarthy & Stone, but now it has returned with another plan for Woodpeckers Drive.

This time the company proposes, similarly to previous schemes, to demolish four houses but instead build 21 homes on the site – a mixture of apartments and houses.

They say that the latest plan does not replace the application for the care facility but hope that the plans will be considered in parallel.

“In terms of scale and form, the overall mass of the accommodation has been reduced from that currently included within the live retirement living planning application, with the footprint of the accommodation also broken to create a collection of individual structures as opposed to one single mass,” the application states.

It adds: “Through the design evolution of the retirement living scheme, there have been a number of principles that have been established that have assisted in shaping the residential planning application in respect of materials, land use, scale and massing.

“While we are of the view that the retirement living planning application is sound and should be the subject of a positive determination, the residential proposal offers an alternative approach to the redevelopment of 1-4 Woodpeckers Drive.”

Managing director Gregg Joslin said: "With regard to our additional application submitted for Woodpeckers Drive for a mix of high quality residential units, this follows the ongoing success of our current, adjacent development at Meadowlands, which is proving to be extremely popular despite the challenging market conditions brought about by Covid-19. This new proposal is running alongside the original application for age restricted housing and it is too early in the process to confirm which application will proceed, and will indeed be dictated by the market and planning policy. We believe that either scheme will be equally beneficial to the area.”

Alfred Homes also has a further application in consideration with the council to demolish 6 Woodpeckers Drive and replace it with four homes, which has been met with criticism from neighbouring residents.

With some arguing that the scheme should be considered in a separate context to the nearby development at Meadowlands and others say that if the plan is approved then traffic will increase three-fold.

There are currently no comments on the proposal to build 21 homes.