A SWANAGE councillor has warned that allowing a developer to back away from promises to provide affordable homes on a former school site could set a precedent for the town.

The company, Bracken Developments, were criticised for allegedly using arguments of affordability elsewhere to free itself from affordable home promises.

It has claimed it does have a commitment to affordable housing pointing to recent developments in Dorset, including Weymouth.

Dorset councillors have now accepted that to provide the 11 affordable homes on the 30-home development at the former St Mary’s School site would have made the project financially unviable.

But it will seek a review of the position as the work progresses to see if at least some affordable homes can be re-instated.

Several councillors had previously said they wanted the affordable homes for local people – even if it meant the company abandoning the project.

Wednesday’s area planning committee was told by officers that, whichever way it was presented, unless the affordable properties are removed from the scheme the profit from the site would be too small to be considered viable, according to Government methods of calculation.

Swanage councillor Gary Suttle asked committee members to think carefully about the mathematics, warning that figures could be read in different ways.

Fellow Swanage councillor Bill Trite said the committee should ‘stick to its guns’ and reject the removal of the affordable properties.

“This is such an important issue, affordable housing in Swanage. It is neither here nor there that the company now own the site, or that they have provided affordable homes elsewhere.

"They will have been obliged to do that,” he said, adding that if Bracken believed their profit would be too low they could sell the site on to someone else.

He added: “This is a classic case of the need to stand by the requirement for affordable housing in an area where it is most needed.”

He said to do otherwise would go against the council’s priorities and a recent statement by council leader Cllr Spencer Flower that the authority needed to put local people first.

Cllr Alex Brenton said she was also sceptical about the financial claims, but was more worried about the precedent which might be set: “If we allow 30 houses with no affordable element what about the next one, and the next one ...it was obviously thought viable at the time.

“What are we setting out for the future of Swanage if we allowed no affordable housing here?” she said.

The committee voted 7-2 to allow the removal of the affordable homes, Cllr Alex Brenton and Julie Robinson the only two opposing the recommendation. 

Ten of the homes for the site will be created by converting former school buildings – the remaining 20 as new builds.