A controversial site for around 100 homes at Redlands Farm, Weymouth has been voted out of the Local Plan review.

Borough councillors heard at their meeting on Thursday evening that there had been confusion whether or not the site was still included – with one borough committee voting to remove it and another to keep it in.

The issue could only be resolved by a vote at the full council which overwhelmingly decided to take the farm proposal out of the forthcoming Local Plan Review – which will guide development in the area up until 2036.

But while the hundreds of people who campaigned against the site might be celebrating there is nothing to stop the farm owner bringing a housing application forward in the near future as the area currently does not have the required minimum five-year land supply.

Agent for the owner, David Hebditch, told councillors at the July 10th management committee that the lease on the farm comes to an end in September and vacant possession of the farm was being sought with a view to submitting a housing application which, he said, would be sympathetic to the area.

Hundreds of residents around Redlands campaigned to exclude the site from the plan review claiming it would remove a remaining green gap, affect wildlife and result not only in a loss of land for farming, but the farm shop as well.

The same arguments were made at the council meeting.

Cllr Kevin Brookes said the proposals for the site had already been reduced from 200 to 100 homes. He said that the smaller figure would make little difference to whether or not the area had a five-year supply of land for housing, the government minimum.

“The farm is just about viable as it is, but if you cut it down any further you would, in effect, be closing down the farm and the farm shop.” He said that 340 other homes were already planned nearby off Nottington Lane.

Cllr Ray Nowak said he supported the removal of the site but warned that it would put more pressure on the build in the remaining sites and reduce the council’s ‘wriggle room’.

“If we agree this will be a breath of fresh air for residents to know that they are not under the microscope and they can rest assured it won’t be considered in the review.”

The vote to remove the site was agreed 23-5 with the council going on to approve the rest of the 300-plus page review document for public consultation.

The review allows 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 proposals will now be the subject of an eight-week informal consultation, ending on October 8th. Provisional dates for ‘drop in’ sessions in the borough have been arranged – on August 30th on Portland; September 12th in Weymouth and September 14th in Chickerell. The details will be confirmed later.

Once all the views have been collated a revised plan will be issued, probably in the summer of 2019, when a 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.

The announcement was welcomed by local resident Ian Wolff, who has campaigned against the proposals since the plans were put forward three years ago.

He said: "We are certainly pleased with the outcome, this is a victory for the local community.

"With already 350 homes planned to the north of the Redlands Farm site, we felt that it was too many for the area.

"The revised local plan has plenty of excess sites for new homes in the borough."

Mr Wolff added that he was glad the planners took their views into consideration stressing that he area was very popular with walkers and dog walkers.