THE partial demolition of a business unit on a Ferndown industrial estate is being requested to make way for a new builders merchant.

Changes are also being proposed to the access to the corner site from Vulcan Way at the Peartree Business Centre on the Ferndown and Uddens Trading Estate. The site also has an access from Cobham Road.

Public comments on the proposals are being sought by Dorset Council before April 25th.

The application comes from Halcyon Nominees Ltd for the Cobham Road site – asking for an ancillary showroom and counter sales and yard area for a builders merchant following the partial demolition of most of the the existing office buildings on the northern section of the site.

The application shows a loss of 47 car parking spaces on the site as a result of the changes, from 71 to 24, although 15 cycle spaces will be added, together with the creation of the yard area.

Planning agents say the application would “make efficient use of brownfield land and capitalise on the expansive frontage along Vulcan Way. It would also deliver an active frontage along Cobham Road.  The design of the proposal has been carefully conceived to make best use of land and respect the character of the locality. At two storeys in height, the development would fully respect the scale of buildings in this part of the industrial estate and the palette of materials would complement neighbouring units.”

None of the documents mention a likely occupier of the redeveloped site adding: “The proposal is for flexible use and need not to be confined to a builder’s merchant however, the preferred operator is a builder’s merchant.”

The resulting building, if approved, would have a footprint of 1,400 square metres on the 0.84 hectare site.

The agents say the redevelopment of the area would make more efficient use of the site, would encourage investment in the area and create additional jobs with a building designed to be appropriate to its location.

To date there have been no public or statutory comments on the proposal.