Dorset Council's Local Plan would wipe out Hardy's Wessex landscape

The countryside north of Dorchester and west of Stinsford with it’s heritage and cultural significance and important links to Thomas Hardy, will become part of Dorset Council’s draft Local Plan to build 4,000 houses to meet the government’s massive new housing targets for local authorities.

The Thomas Hardy Society, STAND, and Dorchester Town Council strongly object.

Proposals from developers include the development of 950 acres of land from Charminster weirs to Stinsford roundabout which would ruin the open countryside around the county town. Much of the development would be built on meadowland which floods and the creation of new roads would have a major impact on the environment.

Most of the land planned for development is Grade 3 farmland, and includes land adjoining the River Frome and its floodplain. The ecological survey produced for Dorset Council has identified foraging and commuting bats, hazel dormouse, otter and water vole, slow-worm, grass snake and a range of breeding and wintering birds with the floodplain supporting a range of waders and wildfowl. A number of badger setts have also been identified across the site.

The full report can be found on the Dorset Council website

using the reference P/ESP/2025/04277

Dorset Council's Local Plan would wipe out Hardy's Wessex landscape

DORSET CPRE PRESS RELEASE

Read more in the Dorset Echo