A PLANNING application to replace two blocks of flats in Canford Cliffs with dozens of specialist retirement apartments has been submitted.

McCarthy and Stone is seeking permission to demolish the “outdated” five-storey Carisbrooke buildings in Canford Cliffs Road which it says are facing "structural issues".

In their place, it has proposed building a single seven-storey block of 60 apartments it would provide through its ‘extra care’ service.

Details of its plans were first unveiled at a public exhibition last summer but it has now submitted its planning application to BCP Council.

Speaking at the time, the firm’s regional managing director, Shane Paull, said: “Our plans provide a fantastic opportunity to deliver a development of much-needed specialist extra care retirement accommodation on brownfield land.

“The proposed apartments would be in an attractive and highly sustainable location close to shops and services as well as nearby bus stops.”

The planning application, submitted last month, proposes a mix of one- and two-bedroom flats across the new building.

Forty-five parking spaces would also be provided in an underground car park.

The flats would all be made available under McCarthy and Stone’s extra care scheme.

It sees residents own their own flats but also provided with the support of carers.

A statement submitted with the application by architects Inspire Design said the flats, if built, “would attract a high level of interest”.

“The existing buildings…do not possess any architectural merit and their only value is in familiarity," it says.

“The apartments were developed in the 60s and have become an accepted part of the landscape.

“Likewise, any redevelopment of this site will also in time become accepted.”

The statement adds that the “concrete structural elements” of the two existing buildings are “decaying due to corrosion” and that repairs are “not an economically viable solution”.

The application will be considered by council planning officers in the coming weeks.