A PLAN to completely redevelop a landmark Purbeck hotel has been submitted.
Kingfisher Resorts Studland Ltd has applied to revamp the two-hectare Knoll House Hotel site in Ferry Road, Studland, to create a ‘high quality resort, holiday villas and leisure facilities’.
Currently, the site features around 30 buildings, containing 106 guest bedrooms and 57 staff bedrooms, ancillary facilities, car parking and landscaping.

The application, created by AWW architects, said: “Many of the existing buildings have reached the end of their life and this presents a unique opportunity for complete redevelopment of the site to provide a high-quality tourist destination within the Studland area with a landscape-led strategy to this unique site.”
The scheme would see the revamped site provide 30 hotel rooms, 22 apartments, 26 villas, a spa and outdoor pool, 79 parking spaces, 36 cycle spaces and a ‘public realm space’.
“The number of rooms proposed responds to its location and local demand for quality hotel accommodation close to amenities and transport links,” the application said.
“Together, the new accommodation and facilities will function as a single luxury resort, providing a level of quality service that Dorset can be proud of and delivering significant job growth.”
A previous application to redevelop the site was refused in February, with planners saying it would impact on the area of outstanding natural beauty and did not have ‘appropriate mitigation against potential impacts on the Dorset Heathlands European Designated Sites’.

The new application promises a design ‘that responds to the local context in terms of use, amount, layout, scale, appearance and landscape but that also functions efficiently as a hotel’.
“The redevelopment of the building has been developed based on careful consideration of the wider rural context and far-reaching views extending to the site,” it added. “The existing site levels, boundary conditions and building heights have been reviewed alongside the desire to create a high-quality, sustainable development and to respond to existing landscape.”

The application is now out to consultation before being considered by Dorset Council planners.
For more details, and to comment on the scheme, log on to www.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk and search for application reference P/FUL/2022/06840.