A MASSIVE housing development of 4,000 new homes is being proposed for land north of the railway line at Crossways.

With other homes already approved, or being planned, it could eventually add 7,000 houses to the village.

The latest scheme is being put forward by Woodsford Farms working with national consultants Nexus Planning.

While Dorchester councillors are welcoming the development as a way of moving the bulk of the area’s housing allocation away from the county town – parish council chairman in Crossways, Andrew Brewer, is warning that his area is in danger of becoming the ‘dumping ground’ for local housing schemes.

He says fellow parish councillors are ‘incandescent’ about scheme after scheme being proposed for Crossways because it isn’t, in his words, “a ‘picture postcard’ village.”

“Developers seem to think they can get away with whatever they want here, aided by the district council planners, but we don’t want to end up the size of Blandford…

“We have taken enough developments over the years and we don’t want more without substantial improvements in our infrastructure.”

Dorchester town council planning committee chairman Robin Potter welcomed the Woodsford Farm proposals at a town council meeting on Tuesday evening and said that it could reduce the demand for more than 3,000 homes on the Dorchester North site which stretches from Charminster to Kingston Maurward.

The council meeting rejected the Dorchester proposals and will oppose the site’s inclusion in the Local Plan review which will shape development in the area up to 2036.

Their decision came as the Woodsford Farms proposal emerged in an email to selected councillors from Nexus managing director, Roger Tustain.

A copy of it, seen by Local Democracy Reporter Trevor Bevins, talks of a long-term growth strategy for the area using farmland and sand and gravel sites.

“Rather than adopting the approach of continually ‘adding on’ to the urban area, Woodsford Farms is promoting a more radical, and in our view, exciting, concept of a major settlement on land to the north of the railway at Crossways…our vision is to develop a new community in phase with the mineral extraction.”

The company says it has assembled a ‘top technical team’ of experts and will present its plans to West Dorset District Council next month (October).

They say the plan will include 4,000 new homes, 35 per cent of them affordable; a new ‘town hub’ to include local shops, a supermarket, local sports and community facilities; up to 250 acres of public open space integrating with the existing open space a the Silverlakes and other Crossways housing schemes being planned.

The proposal would also move Moreton railway station and create a ‘parkway’ style parking area with room for local buses, subject to agreement with Network Rail and the rail operator, and close the two local rail crossings, putting in a rail bridge over the track.

Land for a secondary school is also being suggested with space set aside for employment use.

“In essence we are promoting a new town at Upper Woodsford that, together with existing and planned development at Crossways will comprise around 7,000 dwellings. This level of growth will support significant investment in new infrastructure and facilities.”

Said Crossways parish chairman Andrew Brewer: “there is enormous pressures in and around Crossways to develop many thousands of houses. This will no doubt turn us into a small town in the not too distant future…

“Planners seem happy to override guidelines and boundaries in our parish which are enforced in others because the residents there complain and jump up and down.”