ANOTHER attempt is being made to redevelop a former builders' merchant site in Dorchester – giving the area 'the gateway' it needs, according to architects behind the latest plans.

Previous applications fell after a proposed apartment building was said to be too big and brash for the site with objections also over plans to convert another building to short-term lets.

The latest application for the corner site, adjacent to the town's West railway station and

The Range covers two main distinctive areas and includes commercial spaces and 23 apartments.

The proposal suggests that 90 jobs could be created from the development by the conversion of former warehouses on Maumbury Road, once Foot's Corn Merchants, into a business centre to be known as The Yard.

This includes a new building to fill in the existing gap between the former warehouses and a row of terraced houses.

Other suggestions for the site include a children's creche or nursery for one building with flexible workspace above or a first floor community meeting room and a community courtyard.

Several redevelopment areas are shown in the latest plans – the largest buildings of three and a half storeys, reduced in scale from a previous scheme and showing more design features, including balconies.

The former Gibbs and Dandy builders' merchant in Maumbury Road/Great Western Road has been vacant since the business closed in 2020 with small area currently used by a hand car wash business, which would disappear under the current proposals.

The application, which remains open for public comment until the first week in September, asks for the demolition of some buildings and the conversion of others to create what it describes as commercial employment space and 23 two and three bed apartments, including affordable housing, associated landscape and parking, up from the existing 5 spaces to 27, many of them under or alongside buildings.

The housing details outlines 13 two-bed flats and 3 three-bed for open market sale and seven 2-bed flats for 'affordable' homes.

The application says there will be a reduction in gross commercial space from 200 square metres to 95 square metres and in storage from 251 square metres to 172 square metres, with the space largely being used for the business centre and the flats.

The full details of the application can be found on the Dorset Council website using the reference P/FUL/2025/00984 with public comments able to be made until the first week in September.