A DEVELOPER says it is "quietly confident of victory" over its plans to build apartments for the elderly in Wimborne, which go to a public inquiry next month.

Churchill Retirement Living hopes to bulldoze five family homes in Leigh Road and replace them with a block of 31 sheltered housing for the elderly complete with communal facilities and parking.

The public enquiry is due to be held at the Wimborne Town Council offices in West Borough on December 4, starting at 10am.

"We think we can resolve the grounds of refusal and are quietly confident about the outcome," said Daniel Wilden, the agent acting on behalf of Churchill.

"It's not uncommon in these types of circumstances that local planners want to protect a particular patch from nasty developers, but the government inspector will take a more objective view that places do change.

"We were engaged with the local planners prior to submitting our application and were under no illusions about what they wanted.

"We went into this with our eyes open and knew it would go to appeal, especially when you are dealing with sites that involve demolishing homes."

The block of sheltered apartments would be a mixture of one and two bedrooms, with a warden available 24 hours a day but not living on-site, he says.

Additional facilities would be a communal lounge and laundry.

"Churchill identified Wimborne as a locality that needs this sort of development and the site was also selected because it is on a level walk near to the town centre," Mr Wilden added.

But a planning spokesman at the district council said the development was refused on a lot of issues including being out of character with the area, overbearing and congested design, the lack of an affordable housing agreement and highways problems.