BOURNEMOUTH council’s planning committee is being recommended to approve its highly-controversial Wessex Fields scheme – by the private firm it employed to assess the scheme.

Last year, the council took the unusual step of appointing consultants Blueprint Planning to act as its planning officer in considering the proposals for the new link road and junction from the A338.

And they are now recommending that the scheme be approved when it is considered next Monday (January 28).

The Wessex Fields proposal, which would see a major redesign of the road network in the area around the A338 at Royal Bournemouth Hospital, including the construction of a new link road and junction.

Hundreds of letters of objection linked to the scheme have been submitted to the council, raising concerns about the loss of green belt land and its heritage and environmentalthe impact it would have on heritage and the environment.

Glasgow-based Blueprint Planning was appointed “at an appropriate commercial hourly rate” to act as the planning officer for the application following the departure of council planner Sophie Edwards last year.

Conor O’Luby, co-ordinator for the anti-Wessex Fields campaign group Friends of Riverside, criticised the appointment saying that it constituted “a conflict of interest”.

However, the claim was refuted by the council’s then-head of planning, Andrew England who said that the move was made purely to “aid capacity” within the department.

Revised plans for the junction were submitted in October in a bid to address objectors’ concerns and included the retention of the historic Cob Barn in Holdenhurst Village.

Speaking at the time, Cllr Mike Greene, the council’s cabinet member for transport, described the updated application as “a very good plan” which “will ease congestion” and bring in new jobs.

Funding for the first phase of the project – the link road from the southbound A338 to Deansleigh Road – will be provided by Dorset LEP while a budget has yet to be put together for the northbound connection and the bridge it requires.

The planning application will be considered at a special meeting of the council’s planning committee which will be held at Bournemouth School for Girls.

And Blueprint planning’s David Innes has recommended that councillors grant planning permission.

“The application is for a major highway infrastructure project at a gateway to the town,” he says in his report to the committee.

“There is a clear need for the development to improve the traffic congestion experienced at Castle Lane East which has vehicle flows of about 50,000 vehicles per day,” he says In his report to the committee, he says there is “a clear need” for the development to reduce congestion.

“This has an impact on businesses within the area and the hospital.

“The need for the development includes the social and economic benefits of providing a new junction that seeks to address the congestion issues on Castle Lane East while providing a secondary access to the hospital and to a future employment site.”