PLANNING chiefs are set to rule on a scheme to build a towering 14-storey apartment block at a key Poole town centre site.

The St John's House office block in Serpentine Road has been vacant for more than two years after Borough of Poole's (BOP) transportation services moved back to the Civic Centre.

Now ESRG Developments Ltd want to demolish the offices on site and build a part 12-storey/part 14-storey block with 203 residential apartments.

If agreed by BOP's planning committee today, the complex would offer 58 studio apartments, 92 one-bedroomed flats, 49 two-bedroomed and four three-bedroomed homes.

Its height would be just less than the adjacent Barclays building on the George Roundabout.

Plans also include a residents' fitness suite, a 90-space car park, communal roof garden and bicycle storage.

After lodging the planning application last year, ESRG Group chief executive David Evans said: "This is an exciting development for Poole town centre and for the local population.

"It will provide great living spaces and will be a fantastic opportunity for people to reside close to Poole town and its extensive amenities."

In 2015 BOP adopted a new blueprint for town centre regeneration for up to the next three decades. This Poole Central Area Supplementary Planning Document does allow for buildings exceeding six storeys in Town Centre North.

The proposed scheme going before planning board members is being recommended for approval in a report by Poole council officers.

This report concludes: "The proposal seeks to accommodate a building of significant scale and numbers. Given its town centre location, high density development is encouraged provided that the scale of the resultant building reflects both existing and emerging development, and providing the impact of the development can be mitigated."

The planning department acknowledged: "Whilst of a scale that will be noticeable from a number of vantage points - these will be dominated by existing townscape, such as Barclays House, with the new proposal adding to the townscape not undermining it."