The 760-home Foundry Lea housing scheme on the outskirts of Bridport has been given the final green light.

Although agreed by planners in August 2022, the development was never signed off because not all the conditions for full consent had been met.

In recent weeks, a planned final meeting about the scheme was deferred while agreement over three water retention features were re-negotiated with the Environment Agency.

Each was changed in shape, size or position as a result of those talks.

Concerns over the features, variously described as 'basins' or 'ponds', nearly led to another deferment at the Dorset Council Area Planning Committee this week, when Weymouth councillor Kate Wheller called for them to be fenced, or to have a natural barrier, such as Hawthorn, around them.

She said that her three-year-old brother had drowned in just three inches of water in a similar feature when she was young and she had since campaigned for additional safety measures for water features near where people lived.

"I wouldn't want another family to have to go through that... small children do wander off and play in all sorts of areas they are not supposed to," she said.

Council officers argued there was no need for the fencing because the basins, as they described them, were designed to be shallow and would mostly be dry, only having water in them at times of heavy rainfall.

It was said that their design met the safety guidelines with no requirement for fencing. They are designed to deal with a one in one hundred year flood event, should the need arise.

But Bridport councillor Sarah Williams disagreed over how wet or dry the areas were. She said that local people knew that one, possibly two, of the areas where the three basins were proposed, were constantly wet in winter.

Committee vice chairman Jean Dunseith said she understood the planning view that fencing might not technically be needed and may look obtrusive, but it was a fact that children were drawn to water and it was possible to drown in even a shallow depth.

"It might not look pretty – but why not safeguard for the future?" she said.

After a series of amendments, and a call to defer until another meeting, the committee finally agreed to approve the housing scheme with officers to negotiate a condition which will see the three ponds fitted with fencing, or landscaping, or a mixture of both to improve safety.

All the other aspects of the housing scheme remain as they were previously agreed last year.

The proposals for the 43 hectare site by Barratt David Wilson Homes (Exeter) Ltd and the Vistry Partnerships has 302 homes classed as "affordable", 36 above the minimum level initially agreed between the council and the developers. These additional homes will be funded by Homes England.

Seventy per cent of the affordable housing will be for rent (186); and 30% shared ownership (80) with 5% of the rented units classed as 'accessible and adaptable'.

The remaining homes, a mixture of sizes and designs, will be for sale on the open market.