PLANS to build a five-storey block of flats, submitted by the husband of a member of Bournemouth council’s planning board, will provide no affordable housing.

Outline permission for the scheme to demolish the Montague Hotel in Durley Road South was granted in 2016 but the details of the new development will need to again be approved next week.

The application for reserved matters will be considered by members of the council’s planning board due to the applicant’s close connection to a councillor.

Under the approved plans, put forward by the husband of Cllr Gina Mackin, the existing building will be knocked down and replaced with a five-storey block of 20 flats and six holiday flats.

The council’s policy is that 40 per cent of all houses or flats in schemes of more than 10 dwellings should be affordable – available at 80 per cent of market value.

When outline permission was granted in 2016, councillors were told that the developers had agreed to provide more than £500,000 towards the council’s affordable housing work but that contribution has now been withdrawn.

However, if developers can prove that it is not financially viable to include affordable homes then the policy can be ignored.

A report to the council’s planning board, which is due to consider the reserved matters application for the scheme on Monday, says: “Subsequent to the granting of the outline consent, the applicants submitted viability details which were assessed by the District Valuation Service who concluded that the development was not able to provide a contribution for affordable housing.”

Aside from the provision of affordable housing, councillors will consider plans for landscaping of the site, which a council arboricultural officer has deemed to be “acceptable”.

Planning officers have recommended that members of the committee approve the application, saying that the proposal “would be in accordance” with the council’s development plan and that it “would not materially harm” the character of the area.