COUNCILLORS have thrown out controversial plans to bulldoze the Poole Pottery warehouse and nearby Swan Inn and instead put up a major flat complex.

Developer Skelton Group Poole wanted to build a block of flats up to eight storeys high in place of the historic pub building and popular Quay tourist attraction.

But Poole planning committee chairman Cllr Ann Stribley said: "It would be like trying to fit a gallon in a pint pot. It is too high a density on that site."

The scheme would have seen a block of 96 new apartments, with offices and cafes below, sitting between the Dolphin Quays complex and the tower block, Drake Court.

Residents in both nearby blocks feared they would be overshadowed.

Planning officers had urged councillors to reject the major project, saying it would be "gross overdevelopment" of the conservation area.

And they warned that the project did not justify the "unacceptable" demolition of the Edwardian pub decorated with local tiles, one of the few such buildings left in Poole.

Support for the Swan, which was also known as The Flying Boat, came from organisations such as the Victorian Society and the Tiles and Architectural Ceramics Society, which said the inn's fine decorative tiled façade was of "considerable national and local historic and aesthetic interest".

Poole councillors were also unimpressed by the lack of parking available for the planned development, which they feared would put too much pressure on nearby facilities.

The plans offered basement parking for just 80 cars, less than one space for each of the mainly two-bed flats.

Cllr Stribley added: "We want to see something on that site but what was being proposed was not the right scheme at the moment. We would like to preserve elements of the Swan Inn, either in situ or within the new development."

7:00pm Friday 20th July 2007

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