A NEW health centre and three new retail units are the latest additions to the Brewery Square development in Dorchester.

They are part of a multi-million-pound scheme to redevelop Dorchester's former Eldridge Pope brewery site that also envisages a cinema, hotel, shops, restaurants, arts centre, nursing home and a new railway station - as well as flats and houses.

And more than 600 jobs could be created on the site if planning permission is approved.

Developer Brewery Square Ltd was given outline permission for the redevelopment of the site in December 2004 and has since gained planning permission for much of its scheme, which offers a mix of residential, retail and community facilities.

Dorchester's principal planning officer Andrew Martin says that although there have been some objections to the scheme it was nevertheless an opportunity too good to be missed.

"The comprehensive redevelopment of the former Eldridge Pope Brewery is, literally, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to regenerate a significant site for the greater good of the town," he said.

One of the last pieces of the complex jigsaw to fall into place was a recent agreement (after four years of negotiations) with Network Rail to transfer land for the redevelopment of the country's first solar-powered railway station.

Brewery Square Ltd has already secured a £45,000 grant from the Department of Trade and Industry's Major Photo Voltaic Demonstration Programme towards the project.

Consultants at Solar Century, which has been working with Brewery Square, have already been involved in a number of high-profile projects including a project at the Eden Centre's Education and Resource Centre.

Modern solar panels do not need direct sunlight to work as electricity is generated from daylight.

Plans for the scheme also include more than 500 residential units, around 30 per cent of which will be affordable housing.