PLANNING chiefs are set to rule on a housing estate that Upton residents say will destroy privacy, damage local wildlife and cause a traffic headache.

Property developers want to tear down a detached house and bungalow on Sandy Lane and put 13 dwellings on to the site.

But neighbours say any development, on the land experts confirm is a flood risk, would be a mistake.

Neighbour Paul Donaldson said: "I feel that the proximity, overall height and scale of the whole proposed development is too overpowering in such a confined space.

"Where just two families existed, now to be replaced by 13, the associated pollution from motor vehicle exhausts, domestic boiler exhausts and noise will undoubtedly taint and spoil this area."

Another neighbour, who has already complained to council officials about "hazardous traffic problems in Sandy Lane", said: "This is already a very busy road that is used by traffic trying to avoid Blandford Road. Traffic speeds along there already so I am sure with extra cars parked this will cause more of a hazard than already exists for buses, children and local residents."

The proposal, on a 0.2 hectare site 100 metres from the Blandford Road junction, is for eight three-bedroom houses, two two/three bedroom maisonettes and four one/two bedroom flats.

Council officers recommend members of the planning board, who rule on the proposal next Thursday, should vote against the plan.

Among the reasons given is that "there is a clear and well recognised relationship between the amount of urban development in the vicinity of heathland sites and the degree of damage and deterioration experienced at these sites".

The report adds: "This includes the cumulative effect of small-scale housing developments within the Bournemouth and Poole area such as is proposed in this case."