THE developer of a 174-home scheme in Wimborne may no longer have to make a £500,000 contribution towards improvements at Canford Bottom roundabout.

Despite having approved the scheme earlier this year, Dorset Council planning officers are recommending that councillors remove the condition requiring it when they meet on Wednesday, September 25.

Should the move be backed by the eastern area planning committee, Gleeson Strategic Land would instead make a larger financial contribution towards education provision.

Following the decision of East Dorset District Council to approve its outline plans for the land between Leigh Road and the A31 in March, the firm commissioned a new transport assessment.

Published last month, it found the impact of the development on the roundabout would be less severe than council highway officers had originally judged.

“It is clear that a number of onerous and/or now out of date assumptions were used in relation to traffic generation and the assumed year of opening,” it says.

“It is acknowledged that there will be some queueing on Leigh Road in the year of opening. However, the overall level is significantly less than in the previous analysis.

“Using more up to date information and realistic assumptions, the impact from the development on the operation of the A31 Canford Bottom junction is not significant and the residual cumulative impacts are not severe.”

It says that mitigation works are not required and, as a result, so is the financial contribution towards them.

The issue will be discussed by councillors on Wednesday with planning officer Elizabeth Fay backing the position in a report.

“This revised information relates to the amount of traffic likely to be generated from housing on the site, that the first school will reduce traffic movements off the site at peak times and that the development will commence earlier than planned,” it says.

She recommends that the condition requiring the contribution be removed but that instead the developer increases its education payment from £443,938 to £899,694.

The sum is what the council had requested when it originally considered the application.

A final decision will soon be made by councillors.