The Conservative housing councillor Cllr Tim Yarker, said on May 2 he had looked for sites which might be suitable for affordable housing in Dorchester but had concluded there was little scope.

That was the line the Conservative dominated district council used when they failed to stand up to developers to ensure some of the prison became affordable housing.

That was the line they used when many of them protested against plans for affordable housing near Charminster.

So they are now blocking turning the land at the empty Youth Association offices into affordable housing. Other sites which they are about to sell in secret (banning the public from that section of the meeting) no doubt they plan to sell off to more developers of high end housing.

When will the Conservative councillors stop the social segregation of Dorset, sending key workers on low incomes out of town? Luxury flats and unaffordable family homes mean younger people and local families are being forced out.

Smaller brown field sites are exactly what should be considered for development and with the new unitary council coming into effect next year, the town must now be given a chance to acquire such sites in order to provide much needed genuinely affordable homes for local people.

Claudia Sorin,
Dorchester Labour Party