PLANS to redevelop the Cheviot Court flats and adjoining open space at Somerford have been unveiled by Twynham Housing Association.

First mooted in September, the scheme to demolish the three-storey block of 18 flats and build 39 new homes on the site off Dorset Road is expected to come before Christchurch council's planning control committee at the end of January.

As well as helping to meet the acute demand for social housing in the borough, architects of the project claim it will enhance the area by removing the ageing and unattractive 1960s block of flats and garages and tackle long-standing problems of vandalism and other anti-social behaviour. While the present Cheviot Court is used and abused as an unofficial shortcut to reach the neighbourhood convenience store in Hunt Road, the layout for the proposed mini-estate of flats and houses has been designed so as to improve security for future residents with lockable pedestrian gates and vehicle access limited to the Everest Road frontage.

Centred on a communal "green spine" of open space, the development includes two three-storey blocks of flats facing Hunt Road and a two-storey block fronting Dorset Road.

The centre and rearward part of the one-acre site is earmarked for 10 two and three-bed houses to be built in three terraces.

In its design and access statement accompanying the proposals, Twynham planners say it is hoped to begin work in March with completion scheduled for December 2009.

But planning approval from the council hinges on continuing talks between the housing association and town hall planning officers over the number of affordable housing units included in the scheme.

And the discovery of bat droppings in the roof space could also delay demolition of Cheviot Court until the summer if further checks confirm the presence of the protected animals.