DORCHESTER Town Council has stressed its commitment to providing affordable housing for young people in the town as it strives to make progress with a scheme for at least 20 flats.

The council has been exploring a number of opportunities to progress affordable housing schemes in the town and has decided to focus its efforts on the Trinity Street tennis court site initially, before looking at further opportunities.

Town clerk Adrian Stuart said: "We agreed to promote one site in the first instance, then use the learning gained to help us with further projects.

"The site we have chosen is the tennis courts at the rear of Trinity Street car park.

"These tennis courts will be replaced by new ones on the Bowling Green in the Borough Gardens, which funding is now in place for, and which we expect to start work on this autumn."

Mr Stuart said informal discussions were currently taking place with West Dorset District Council to look at how any legal and other constraints on the current tennis court site can be overcome.

He said: "Because of how we took ownership of the site back in 2000 these need to be thoroughly explored before we make a final decision to develop the site.

"If we do get a green light from our discussions with West Dorset we would look to transfer the site to a Community Land Trust with the expectation that they will build at least 20 small flats for sale or rent to young people that work but can’t afford to live in the town.

"It might be possible to work with other landowners, either West Dorset District Council or Dorchester Municipal Charities, to provide other benefits as well."

Mr Stuart said that going through the various processes required was likely to take some time, but it did not alter the council's determination to do its bit to address the growing demand for affordable housing in the town.

He said: "We recognise that any site that we own will take time to deliver, due to the nature of how we originally received that land.

"That doesn’t in any way deter the town council from wanting to deliver affordable housing for young people in the town, it simply recognises the many hoops we will have to jump through to ensure the outcome meets everyone’s requirements."