A SCHEME to build 56 flats in Weymouth has been refused by planners because they lacked information about whether a nearby landfill site might have contaminated the ground.

Laishley Developments wanted to demolish 12 flats at Rowland Court, Greenhill, and build new flats on the site in two blocks.

Members of Weymouth and Portland Borough Council planning and traffic committee were told that their officers quite liked the scheme but were recommending refusal because of serious concerns about the company's submission.

They said the former Lodmoor landfill site was less than 50 metres away and Laishley had not adequately shown if the land was free of contamination which would allow the site to be developed without risk to future occupiers and site workers.

Laishley said the meeting did not have to refuse its scheme to get the information but could grant permission subject to a condition requiring satisfactory information to be provided, an idea Coun Peter Farrell said had 'merit'.

Chairman Coun Doug Hollings said that the weakness of this approach was that they would not know how bad things were until they got the results.

Coun Christine James said: "I do think it is too much, going from 12 flats to 56. I think the new scheme looks a lot nicer than what is there already but I don't like the tower.

"I would like to see a smaller development and I would go along with the officers about the need to check contamination of the site."

Coun John Nash said: "Developers would not build there if there was gas. Why hold it up and put the developer to more expense?

"This is why it takes so long to get a development off the ground in this town because it goes on and on and on."

A move to delegate approval for the scheme subject to a condition on contamination was lost 8-4 and the development was then refused on the same vote.