PLANS to create housing and jobs at an emptying depot site in Christchurch provoked fierce debate among councillors at a recent meeting.

A meeting of the community services committee at Christchurch council heard about the plans to devise a development brief for the Grange Road depot site.

The site is mainly used by the Dorset Waste Partnership and the council’s ground maintenance team along with smaller businesses and storage.

But in February, the DWP will leave the site for alternative accommodation in Bournemouth leaving the premises half empty.

Due to the potential costs to the council – which would rise from £130,180 to £238,000 – and the impact the decline would have on nearby residents, the council said there was a need to consider redevelopment options.

The planning brief would give residents a form of protection against unwanted types of development, head of property and engineering Lindsay Cass told members.

But despite general acceptance something would need to be done with the site to stop it declining any further, there was a dispute about the way an earlier consultation with residents was carried out.

A petition from the Grange Residents Association, which was not allowed to be presented at full council, called on the council to withdraw the brief and work with the residents to ‘safeguard’ the area.

Supporting them, Cllr David Jones, county councillor for the ward, said the brief ‘could have been done much better’.

“This is a top down process. I believe it would have been better if we had gone to the residents and businesses and said we have to do something about this – giving the community ownership of the proposals from the start.”

But Cllr Ray Nottage, leader of the council said: “If you don’t put a planning brief on, the residents will be in a worse situation than they are in at present.”

The planning brief was approved by the committee with two abstentions.