Despite opposition from neighbours, the development company HoneyCo has received principle planning approval to construct nine new dwelling units and a swimming pool on a site at 8 Fairyland Road, in Pembroke.

Paul Lowry of Woodbourne Associates, the prime professional involved in the development, said right now the one and a half acre area is a "heavy industrial area" complete with motor car showrooms, piles of structural steel and factories, amongst other things. "It's heavy industrial use in a residential land zone," he said.

However HoneyCo, owners of the property, now aim to develop the land into an apartment complex that, said Mr. Lowry, "will be far superior to what is there now".

"The change will be dramatic," he said. "It will be transformed."

But getting planning approval has been difficult he said, with at least seven objectors to the decision.

"One of the complaints was about traffic," he said. "But traffic will be much, much less - if you monitor all the containers going in and out of there right now you'll see there would be less cars (once the lot is turned into apartments) than containers."

Mr. Lowry said the application had the support of the technical offices in the Planning Department because everything conformed to the planning statement, the rules which have to be abided by in order to build.

"How people could object to it I don't know," he said, "but the objections have been overruled." Construction is expected to begin on the site in about six months once final building applications have gone through.