WELL, the chitter-chatter that goes on across West Dorset as to whether Poundbury, the urban extension of Dorchester, is attracting too many businesses from the county town itself looks like it will rumble on for some time yet.

The Poundbury Business Survey, which was jointly commissioned by the Duchy of Cornwall with the West Dorset District Council and has just been published, provides some very useful up-to-date data.

But I am sure the Duchy would have welcomed a much higher response rate than the 40 per cent which their postal questionnaire project achieved.

That works out at 65 responses from 161 Poundbury businesses which were contacted by Oxford Brookes University who carried out the survey. Perhaps trade is so good that the other 96 businesses were too busy to spend time answering.

The Duchy office told me that their survey does not support a view that Poundbury is taking businesses away from Dorchester town centre.

The Duchy points out that their survey shows that 51 per cent of the companies in Poundbury were started there.

However, the survey also shows that 25 per cent of the Poundbury businesses have upped sticks from the county town and some 17 per cent came from the rest of West Dorset.

The strongest reasons for locating in Poundbury, given in the survey, were the suitability of business premises, the quality of place, car parking and access to customers.

The whole of the retail and business sector in the area is undergoing change as Poundbury keeps growing, as Brewery Square settles in and to come at some time the proposed development of Charles Street. Steve Bulley, president of the Dorchester Chamber of Commerce, is in optimistic mood and tells me that the town is “vibrant and buzzing”.

He added “We are seeing a majority of retail outlets re-let very quickly, and the quality is always high. However there is a shortage of first floor office space within the town centre which has driven some non-retail businesses to Poundbury”

So it looks as if this part of the South West is undergoing a renaissance.

Not exactly a transition from the medieval to the modern world.

But for sure this great revival is changing the face of the Thomas Hardy scenario.

Ron Kirby

Dorchester