PLANS to build 40 homes and a 90-bed care home on an area of woodland once earmarked for the Highcliffe bypass have been submitted.

The proposal from Brentland Ltd has been handed to planners at Christchurch council.

It is asking for permission to build the homes and care home on the disused land off Jesmond Avenue in the village.

And the developers say the scheme will make a “significant and valuable contribution towards the provision of nursing and residential care, which is important in the context of an ageing population and related pressure on medical and social services.”

Part of the area was cleared last year after the land was bought back by the Poole-based developers Boyland and Son, of which Brentland Ltd is a part of.

It was sold by the company back in 1964 to the former Hampshire County Council, as part of a compulsory purchase order to build the Highcliffe Bypass.

Twenty years later it became clear that a Highcliffe Bypass would never happen and Peter Boyland, the owner of Boyland and Son, began writing to the authority asking to buy his land back.

The outline plans also include a proposal to improve the pedestrian path from Greenways to Lymington Road.

The care home could be four-storeys in height, with access to the development from two new points in Jesmond Avenue.

A planning statement adds: “It is important to note that the site had previously only remained undeveloped because it had been compulsorily purchased to allow for the construction of a road.

“It had previously been the intention that the site would be developed for that purpose but changes in priority meant the road was not delivered.

“The status of the site is not therefore a result of any long term master-planning intention for Highcliffe but is rather a historic anomaly relating to land ownership.”

Highcliffe Residents Association chairman, Rob Austin, said a public meeting is planned with residents and the developers.