Civic Society members in Dorchester say plans for a ‘Dorchester North’ extension to the county town fail to meet planning guidelines.

They claim the revisions to the Local Plan have been short-sighted in ignoring the relationship between Weymouth and Dorchester and doing nothing to tackle current traffic problem, let alone future congestion which they believe the proposals will create.

They believe the revised plan, which guided planning in the area until 2036, should have considered growth for some smaller towns and villages to strengthen their communities with affordable housing and good public transport.

To lump 3,500 homes in the Dorchester and Charminster area is “excessive and unbalanced” says the society in its submission.

The Chairman of the Society, Tess James, said that: “ sadly the ‘preferred options’ plan is a wasted opportunity to address Dorchester’s problems and meet the needs of local people. The plan should give greater protection to Dorchester’s historically and culturally important boundary with the Frome water meadows…

“The plan fails to provide either a clear spatial strategy (how Dorchester relates both to the whole Plan area and its surrounding towns and villages) or a transport strategy (showing how the town centre could be improved and how the town can better connect with Weymouth, Crossway and other local settlements).

“The plan does not recognise and capitalise on the existing functional relationship [where local people live and work] between Dorchester, Weymouth, Crossways and the town’s surrounding villages,” say society members in their written submission.

They also claim that the town centre proposals will ‘hollow-out’ the main shopping area, leading to further business closures and criticise the lack of proposals to alleviate traffic in the town centre and reduce traffic in the high streets.

“The Council has outlined an unsympathetic development proposal for north of Dorchester. Due to the lack of any effective means of connecting with the town, there is a high risk that extra car traffic will overload existing local and town centre roads and car parks. Failing the deletion of this proposal in the next stage of the plan, the Society has put forward an alternative concept to mitigate what could be the loss of the landscape, heritage and literary capital that is valued by local people and underpins our local tourist industry. This alternative concept gives greater protection to the water meadows and maintains the existing clear cut edge to north Dorchester.”

West Dorset District Council say the scheme is their preferred option for the area, offering the chance of much-needed ‘affordable homes’ with 35 per cent of the development falling into that category.

The scale of the project will also allow for public facilities to be provided including schools, a GP surgery and will leisure opportunities with a network of paths and cycleways linking the area and into the county town.