Pleas to keep two Weymouth green spaces out of the sights of developers failed to persuade borough councillors – despite passionate arguments.

Residents living near Redlands Farm and Wyke Oliver Farm say neither site should even be considered for housing and wanted both removed from the consultation document.

Both have been included in the Local Plan Review document – and will stay in.

Borough councillors say the sites need to be looked at as the area has to meet its Government imposed housing targets.

A meeting was told that without a suitable land supply and a guiding local plan the area could be an easy target for development, with little to stop unwelcome proposals.

Weymouth and Portland housing briefholder Cllr Gill Taylor told the borough management committee that, like it or not, the area needed more housing.

“They should both stay in the review document, but more sites should also be brought forward,” she said, “We need development, we need houses, we need places for our kids to live in.

“I understand your objections,” she told the dozen objectors who appeared at the meeting, “But where else would you build houses?…we really do need more houses, we need more sites in the town, not less.”

Cllr Ray Nowak said he also understood why people were ‘agitated’ to find the two sites up for review.

“But there will be ample opportunity to examine the difficulties – this plan will be modified,” he said.

Residents told the committee that neither site was suitable for new homes.

David Berry from Dorchester Road said more than 850 people had signed a petition against the Redlands Farm proposals – with objections including the loss of the farm shop, risks of pollution and flooding, a threat to wildlife and a loss of farmland.

Mike Jackson raised similar objections to the inclusion of the Wyke Oliver Farm site and argued for it to be struck out – before being considered.

He said development proposals in the past had been rejected with concerns about underground springs, flooding and land instability, including land slips.

“The area is shown as a low to medium flood risk but in fact flooding is a regular occurrence,” he said.

Other residence also spoke of the flood risk and subsidence – with David Cox adding an argument about the unsuitable local roads and lack of access to a bus route.

“About forty per cent of residents are pensioners with many of them unable to walk about half a mile uphill to the nearest bus route,” he said.

Mary Brightwell said that residents of Wyke Oliver Close were upset at a suggestion that access to the 150-home development site could be through the Close. She said any development would be detrimental to the landscape and nature and would result in residents enduring dust and noise for a considerable time if development went ahead.

Chartered Surveyor David Hebditch spoke for the owner of the Redlands site. He said that the current lease on the land expired in September when the owner wanted vacant possession.

He said his client believed the site could be developed in a sympathetic way and could be suitable for around a hundred homes.

Wey Valley councillors Pam Nixon and Tony Ferrari both backed the residents pleas to remove the areas from the consultation document altogether.

Cllr Ferrari said residents views were well founded and if the Wyke Oliver site were to be developed it would have a considerable effect on the Area of Natural Beauty. He said that getting in and out of the site would be terrible, ending up on a blind bend.

Strategic director Stephen Hill said the review of the local plan allowed for around 16,000 new homes in Weymouth, Portland and West Dorset with an additional 51 hectares of employment land over the next 20 years.

The review proposals will now be the subject of an eight-week informal consultation, ending on October 8.

Provisional dates for ‘drop in’ sessions have been arranged – on August 30 on Portland; September 12 in Weymouth and September 14 in Chickerell. The details will be confirmed later.

Once all the views have been collated a revised plan will be issued, probably in July 2019, when a more formal period of consultation will be held with the re-shaped proposals going to an independent planning inspector and then a public examination of the proposals.

Next stage gets the green light

The green light has been given to the next stage of the Joint Local Plan review by council committees in Weymouth and Portland and West Dorset.

Both full councils of Weymouth & Portland Borough Council and West Dorset District Council will now have to consider the proposals when they meet at the end of July.

Residents will then be able to have their say on the proposals.

The joint plan was adopted in October 2015 but an inspector ordered an early review to identify further land for housing.

The first part of the review took place in early 2017 on the issues and options. Following this, a ‘preferred options’ document was put together.

A consultation on this will now take place once approved by councillors.

Cllr Ian Gardner, West Dorset District Council’s Portfolio Holder for Planning, said: “The consultation provides an opportunity for residents, local businesses and statutory bodies to comment on the emerging Local Plan. When finally approved it will detail the sites allocated for development and be used when considering planning applications. For this review the councils are required to allocate sufficient sites to meet the demand to 2036."

Consultation will run for eight weeks, with the aim of starting in August.

Roadshows are being planned for the first few weeks of September where residents can speak to planning experts.