THE latest stage of plans to extend Arts University Bournemouth’s (AUB) campus have been given the go-ahead by Poole council.

The borough’s planning committee approved proposals to construct new academic buildings, a new arrivals pavilion, student accommodation and car parking spaces on land south of the current campus at Fern Barrow.

It follows the granting of outline planning permission for the scheme in December 2016.

The latest application concerned reserved matters including access, appearance, landscaping, layout and scale.

The new student accommodation will create 42 cluster flats providing 297 student bed spaces, in the form of 269 single en-suite rooms, 23 studios and five accessible studios.

There will be three residential buildings: Block A, partly three and four storeys, will be adjacent to Fern Barrow and wrap around into Gillett Road, Block B and C, both four storeys, will create a ‘residents' core’ to the west.

The scheme will see up to 13,000sqm of new academic buildings and car parking with a minimum of 250 spaces.

It is part of the 'Talbot Village Project', agreed in principle by Poole and Bournemouth councils in 2015.

There were 25 letters of objection to the plans, mainly from residents of nearby Talbot Village. They argued the proposed academic buildings and student accommodation were too large and that the traffic generated by the development would cause too much congestion. They also said more students living on site would mean more noise.

Concerns have also been raised over the loss of the last piece of open grazing land on which part of the new development will be situated. Natural England objected to the scheme on the basis it would have “an adverse effect on the integrity of Dorset Heathlands Special Protection Area” and “damage and destroy protected species”.

However, in a letter prior to the planning meeting, AUB addressed Natural England's concerns including car park management and bio-diversity enhancement.

AUB also agreed a site for reptile translocation with the organisation.

Case officer Helen Harris said in a report to councillors that the layout and scale of the scheme had “evolved from the outline plan” and provided “staggered and stepped blocks” in a “horseshoe arrangement”.

“The revised layout is favoured as its staggered footprint and varied height breaks up building mass and reduces perceived scale, and allows ‘breathing space’ between the clusters of student flats,” she said.

She continued that the proposed landscaping around the perimeter of the site would “provide unity to the campus, with screening to and from the new buildings to the nearby houses, shops and university buildings.”

Work on a new bus hub and link road from Boundary Roundabout, upon which AUB’s scheme depends, are ongoing as part of a hybrid project by Bournemouth University.