TWO applications to redevelop part of a furniture store site in Wimborne have been combined – months after Dorset Council rejected the "contrived" previous arrangement.

In June, planning officer Elizabeth Fay said the approach of submitting separate plans for the Sturtons and Tappers building in East Street and the land at its rear was an attempt to circumvent policy.

A new application has now been put forward for the conversion of the store’s upper floors into flats alongside seven houses behind it.

“This proposal presents a comprehensive development of the two sites,” a statement submitted with the plans says.

Planning permission for the seven homes behind the shop building was approved in 2018.

But a subsequent proposal for the upper floors of the store was refused in June this year, partly because it was felt the schemes were linked.

In her report published at the time, Ms Fay refuted the claim that the applications were separate.

“It is difficult for officers to establish intention," she said. "However there is evidence that the wholesale development of this site was previously considered.

“The scheme appears contrived in order to split the site into two parcels rather than putting forward a comprehensive development which makes best use of the land.”

Planning policy requires developments of at least ten houses in East Dorset to be 40 per cent ‘affordable’.

The threshold would not have been met for either application if they were considered separately.

The agent for the second application said the shop building had not been available for redevelopment when the first proposals were put forward and so there was no link.

However, earlier discussions with the council looked at the possibility of a single 21-home development of the site, prompting the refusal of the second scheme.

A new application, including both parts of the development, has now been submitted.

A statement says Sturtons and Tappers will continue to operate from the building but alterations to the ground floor would “provide more flexible accommodation” which could be run by more than one business.

But it says that, despite the combination of the two developments, the viability of the project is “poor” and that “there is no conceivable way” for it to make an affordable housing contribution.

Council planning officers will consider the application in the coming weeks.