Councillors on Gillingham Town Council’s planning committee have unanimously recommended the acceptance of two separate outline planning applications for schemes to build close to 1,600 homes on the town’s planned Southern Extension.

The application for an ‘urban extension’ of 961 homes from land agents Welbeck Land on a site west of Shaftesbury Road and a proposal from developers CG Fry for 634 homes and a primary school at Park Farm were both heard at a meeting on Monday, 12 February.

Both applications will now go to the planning authority North Dorset District Council for its consideration.

Though the applications for the long-awaited Southern Extension received unanimous support, there were some misgiving expressed about works traffic, amid fears that initial access to the Welbeck Land site could be via Kingfisher Avenue.

Councillors hope that part of the £4.1 million recently announced by the government to help the Southern Extension development can be used to build some of the necessary road infrastructure before the main work on the site begins.