AN electric vehicle charging station on the Dorchester to Blandford road is being recommended for approval at a planning meeting on Tuesday (24) – against the wishes of local objectors.

If Dorset Council agrees the proposal, it will be the second charging base on the road.

Planning officers are recommending the northern area planning committee approve the application for an eight-bay charge station at Hyde Farm off the A354 Salisbury road at Pimperne.

There have been 22 local objections with opposition from the parish council, the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty team and the Dorset Campaign to Protect Rural England campaign group.

A larger EV station has already been given planning consent just outside Winterbourne Whitechurch although work has not yet started on the site.

That approval includes a solar power farm alongside the charging station although the application about to be considered is for a stand-alone charging station.

It comes from InstaVolt Ltd with planning documents showing the proposed layout just off an existing track leading to the Archway Nursery and Pre School on the east side of the road with an electricity substation and standard 120KW charger points each with its own parking bay.

The charging station, which will not be staffed, would be lit at night and available for use 24 hours a day, 7 days per week, although the lights will only be on when the chargers are in use.

The application has been referred to the Dorset Council planning committee, rather than be decided by the council’s planning team, after an objection from the parish council.

It says the site is unsuitable and could increase the danger at an ‘already hazardous’ access road and that the site is within the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty where there should not be any additional lighting to undermine the ‘dark skies’ policy.

Similar comments have come from the Cranborne Chase and West Wiltshire Downs AoNB team which says the plan conflicts with the purpose of the AoNB designation and, in addition to lighting, would also add noise to the area, at an anticipated level of 65decibels which it describes as ‘quite significant.’ Said the AoNB team submission: “Whilst this might appear, at a time when everyone is conscious of the need to reduce carbon emissions, to be a laudable project it does conflict with the Neighbourhood Plan and, equally worryingly, appears to be a new service station on a greenfield site. Clearly that conflicts with the purposes of AONB designation, namely conserving and enhancing natural beauty.”

Objections had also been lodged by the Dorset Campaign to Protect Rural England group which echoed many of the parish council and AoNB team comments, adding: “This would give the appearance of being like a filling station and as such is incompatible with Pimperne’s Neighbourhood Plan which requires that there is no further development on the eastern side of the A354.”

A planning case officer report says despite the conflicts with some local planning policies the benefits of the proposal outweigh any adverse impacts: “The electric charge point network with its associated rapid charging infrastructure will be critical to meeting future demand, encouraging uptake of electric vehicles as well as addressing concerns regarding charge point availability, reliability and ease of use,” said the report to councillors.