A spat has broken out between Dorchester and Crossways councillors over the allocation of housing land.

Town councillors from the county town have been accused of wishing the 4,000 Woodsford Farms development on Crossways to avoid the need for 3,000-plus new homes north of Dorchester.

Crossways district councillor Nigel Bundy says the ‘Hardy huggers’ of Dorchester ought to have known better than to suggest Crossways take the majority of the area’s housing need outlined in the Local Plan review up to 2036.

“Talk about a bunch of Nimby’s in Dorchester. But we will stand up to them and we shall oppose the Woodsford Farms scheme,” he told a parish meeting on Thursday, to applause from those at a parish meeting in the village hall.

He urged Crossways residents to make their comments opposing more development in and around the village.

“We now have three major sites – Woodsford Farms, Frome Valley Road and next to the Hippy Field…In 2015 we fought against those sites but Frome Valley has already gone through,” he said.

Cllr Bundy says that although the village has a ‘development boundary’ it is being ignored with West Dorset planning committee claiming they can do nothing to oppose new schemes because the area is slightly short of a five-year housing supply.

“We have no Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, no Sites of Special Scientific Interest. We’re flat and we also have landowners who are keen to give up their land to people who want to come and live here.

“Every time someone wants to do something they say ‘put it at Crossways’ and yet not a jot has been done to improve any of the roads, or anything else…. we will end up as a small town without the facilities of a small town.”

He said that if everything currently being talked about, or already approved, was built, Crossways would grow by 150 per cent, even without the 4,000 homes proposed by Woodsford Farms.

Parish council chairman, Andrew Brewer, said he too was upset by the stance of some Dorchester town councillors.

“Dorchester town council has behaved dishonourably. How dare they: what would they think if we suggested building in the Borough Gardens?

“We don’t need your ‘help’, thank you very much…we have been treated with contempt for far too long.”