PLANS for a commercial and residential development next to Canford Park Arena will be unveiled this week.

Residents are invited to attend two public exhibitions outlining the plans for land south of Magna Road, Bearwood, Poole.

Barratt Homes, David Wilson Homes and WH White, who are yet to lodge any official planning application, want to gauge public opinion on their joint proposals to build 317 homes, develop employment space and "facilitate public access to a new country park" on the site.

The land, which lays outside of the designated green belt, already has planning consent for 16,000 square metres of employment use. However, developers want to forge ahead with a mixed commercial and residential development, which will include 127 affordable homes.

Stuart Goodwill, head of planning at Barratt David Wilson Southampton said: "The exhibition on our plans will allow local people to see how the site could be developed for much needed new and affordable family homes and facilitate public access to a new country park.

"We expect to submit a planning application following consultation and consideration of the feedback."

The site is one of 50 recently identified in a separate Borough of Poole (BOP) draft planning blueprint, which will help shape future housing building in the borough until 2033.

BOP's Local Plan Review will set out the preferred sites for development within Poole for the next two decades.

The local authority needs to build an additional 5,000 new homes by 2033, to meet growing housing need.

Poole's current Core Strategy already sets out the borough's approach to ensuring 10,000 homes are built by 2026 - but of the 14,200 new homes needed by 2033, just 9,200 are able to be developed on existing sites.

During this wider consultation, which runs until August 8, civic officials are essentially asking the public what they think the best way to meet the 5,000 home shortfall is.

They're been asked to comment on options including building more homes on existing sites; to allow more high rise accommodation in parts of the town centre; to build on new urban sites within Poole, or to expand the town outwards into the surrounding countryside. The consultation also asks residents to consider a combination of these proposals.

Further public consultation will take place on the final draft Local Plan in spring 2017, with a view to the plan being adopted in spring 2018.

Residents can submit their views online at www.poole.gov/uk/local-planreview. Paper copies are available in the planning reception at the Civic Centre and at all Poole libraries.

You can also write to Local Plan Review Consultation, Planning Policy Team, FREEPOST, RTKL-UYRB-SAXB, Borough of Poole, BH15 2RU.

The first public exhibition on the specific proposals for a commercial and residential development at land south of Magna Road is set for Bearwood Community Hall, King John Avenue, Bournemouth, between 2-8pm, Thursday, July 21.

The second public exhibition for the same Magna Road site is scheduled for Poole Central Library, Dolphin Centre, Poole, between 10am-4pm, on Saturday, July 23.