THERE is no 'plan B' for Dorset's waste plan if councillors decline to adopt it.

Dorset Council heard on Thursday that the successful legal adoption of the county-wide plan will protect all of Dorset from unwanted planning appeals over waste projects.

Planning brief holder Cllr David Walsh was responding to a challenge to the plan from Green councillor Brian Heatley .

He said that the assumption that the county's need for landfill would continue to grow each year by 1.5 per cent was the wrong approach, far better to have a plan which aimed to reduce it in line with the council's declaration of a climate change emergency.

Cllr Walsh said the time was passed for such challenges, having taken six years to get the plan to the stage it was at.

He was critical that only a quarter of Dorset Council members had turned up for a briefing about the plan and its importance: “If you had read it you would know that we have no options but to adopt the plan, or not have a plan and we cannot not have a plan,” he said.

Cllr Heatley said the criticism of the plan was that it was 'business as usual' failing to recognise that times had changed.

“We shouldn't accept that – it's not on line with having declared a climate emergency,” he said at Thursday's Dorset Council meeting, “It's entirely reasonable for the plan to look at what happens if we fail, but it should focus on reducing waste.”

When pressed about an alternative strategy Cllr Walsh admitted: “I am hoping BCP will adopt it. I do not have a plan B. Let us all hope they do adopt it.”

Put to the vote the plan was approved 59-7 with one abstention.