I have been watching closely the articles and letters in your publication since June about the North Dorchester Development.

As a lifelong town resident I thought I would write you with my concerns and view point.

The plans for the new development north of Dorchester bring many conflicting feelings to the current inhabitants of Dorchester.

On one hand I want to see our green belt land protected and brown sites used first, on the other we need housing for local families.

The rationale behind the North Dorchester development is reportedly to allow those living in Bridport and Weymouth who work in Dorchester a chance to move to Dorchester as reported in your publication on 11/6/18.

Crucially, however, this has failed to respect why people live away and commute- affordability.

The plans for North Dorchester propose 35 per cent affordable homes, but offer no plan to guarantee this.

This sort of promise has been broken before, like at the prison site and reportedly at the London Road McCarthy & Stone site.

In any case, wages in Dorset are not high enough to achieve the current definition of affordable which stands at 80 per cent of the market price.

If the development must be on Green Belt land, I would want to avoid what is a plan to further gentrify Dorchester.

WDDC should make large swaths of the development plan a rural exception site in line with National Planning Policy Framework. I would personally like to see 50 per cent social housing, 35 per cent affordable homes (in line with local wages and not house prices) and the rest can be left to the free market. I am however ever the optimist.

Your publication reported (5/9/18) a local political consensus for the need of affordable housing.

Therefore introducing a large percentage of the plan as a rural exemption site would be reasonable.

This locks the land for housing which addresses local housing issues, and only allows people with family or work connections in the town to live there.

This would perhaps go some way to tackling our housing crisis, get families of the housing list, and allow young people the opportunity to be able to live in Dorchester, instead of being priced out and moving away.

I would ask you urge the residents in Dorchester to oppose the North Dorchester plans in their current form, to get firmer guarantees for affordable and social housing for locals. Remember to do so by 8th October.

Poundbury is a beautiful development, but we don't need another one. We don't want to be gentrified, just good homes for local families!

RICHARD ROBSON

Dorchester