Save the Area North of Dorchester!
A Public Meeting to Save Hardy's Countryside
Dorchester Town Hall - Saturday 25th March at 2:30pm.
Dear Supporters,
Save the Area North of Dorchester.
We are writing to you, as a supporter of STAND, to invite you to an important public meeting in Dorchester on Saturday, March 25th. We are keen to bring you up to date on Dorset Council’s proposals to build 4,000 new houses on the fields alongside our beautiful water meadows, which they are determined to push through despite widespread opposition.
You may have read that the Council has finally published a full breakdown of the 6,000 comments received when the draft Local Plan was published two years ago. It may not surprise you to know that the single most contentious proposal in the plan was what is called DOR 13 – the shocking desecration of our local landscape and many important habitats.
We wish we could tell you that Dorset Council has responded positively to your objections and the issues that matter to you. Sadly, that is not the case. Councillor David Walsh recently told the media that: “The North Dorchester Garden Community development is already part of the adopted West Dorset, Weymouth and Portland local plan and is part of the future of Dorset.” Councillor Walsh, who oversees planning, later retracted the statement acknowledging that it was incorrect. The council blamed internal communications issues for the mistake.
STAND’s attempts to establish how this serious mistake occurred have been rebuffed by council officers.
County council elections take place in May 2024, but the council will not publish its revised Local Plan until after that date. We think people should be given the fullest possible information about DOR 13 before they cast their vote in these elections.
We have therefore invited a number of key speakers to discuss the proposals for DOR 13 at a public meeting in Dorchester Town Hall on March 25th. The meeting will start at 2.30 and will include contributions from Wessex Water, Dorchester Town Council and a leading academic in the field of planning and housing.
If you continue to be concerned about this massive development and the impact it will have on our county town and the villages of Stinsford and Charminster, we’d urge you to come along. You will be most welcome.
Kind regards
Jane Ashdown, Chairperson, STAND
Alistair Chisholm, Coordinator, STAND