Dorset’s Draft Local Plan (DLP) and Draft Local Transport Plan (LTP4) Consultations have been published. We have until 13 October to submit our comments.
Draft Local Plan
The draft local plan is a “regulation 18” consultation on the proposed development sites. This is a very important document as it will have a strong influence on the amount and location of all residential homes, workplaces and renewable energy sites for the next 15 years. The consultation is a response to the government’s call for 1.5million homes to be built within the current parliament. In Dorset we have been set a target of 3246 homes/year which is 80% higher than the previous target from 2021 (which was itself bitterly criticised as too high) and nearly three times what Dorset has been capable of building. Dorset council themselves branded the number unrealistic and undeliverable (as have ALL counties in the Southwest) but has persisted in going forward with a draft Local Plan that would see the number of homes in Dorset increase by 50,000 homes over the 15-year term of the plan or a 25% increases in the total number of houses in Dorset.
Building such a huge number of houses on greenfield sites does not bring down house prices, or make them more affordable or address our housing crisis by delivering more social rental homes. Instead, it will concrete over our green spaces, clog up our infrastructure and increase our emissions making our environmental and climate targets even more difficult to achieve.
Unfortunately the whole issue has become highly political and contentious and frequently couched in terms of “Nimbys vs the people” which is so far from the truth and is making any reasoned and practical approach even more difficult to achieve. What is fact is that Dorset Council have responded to the government’s targets by putting out a draft plan that includes almost every site that has ever been put forward by land owners and developers, and amounts to development of around 70,000 new homes in Dorset over 15 years.
It includes a loosening of the development boundaries around every towns and villages and includes a significant invasion into the greenbelt. Many of these sies are wholly inappropriate from multiple perspectives. This lack of any discrimination or screening contradicts Dorset Council’s own Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment (SHLAA) and cannot be in the best interests of Dorset.
We urge everyone to look at what is being proposed in your local neighbourhood, and to make your feelings known to your local councillors and to Dorset CAN (DorsetCAN@gmail.com). We will compile Dorset-wide response to the consultation which will be coordinated under the “Dorset Deserves Better” banner.
Draft Local Transport Plan
Please don’t also forget the Local Transport Plan consultation which runs alongside the draft Local Plan. This consultation will be responded to though coordination with the regional Transport Action Groups. Again we encourage you to read and respond to the consultation.
