Dorset Council is developing a Local Plan. If you’re getting déjà vu, don’t worry. You are correct, you have heard it all before.
A plan was in development last year, resulting in gleeful developers and horrified residents due to the scale of housing sites suggested across the county. Those housing targets have not disappeared and are not going away any time soon. However, the new rules on Local Plans mean that Dorset has reviewed its situation and decided to follow the new planning pathway.
This has left me wondering whether the county will ever get a meaningful plan that actually delivers what it sets out to do.
Right now, the council has a ‘scoping document’ looking at which policies should be in the new plan – and it is asking for feedback. There’s also a very clear message that they are not looking for housing sites.
(Well, not yet anyway: I’m sure that’s coming next.)
I’m still dealing with the aftermath of the last draft plan, which saw developers laying siege to my parish, eyeing up all the green fields. So I admit I viewed the forthcoming plan with a degree of healthy scepticism.
Where is farming?
As I perused the latest document, a few policies caught my eye. The ‘growing the economy’ section was heartening, showing plans for growth in both defence and engineering, and also in the small businesses which make up the backbone of Dorset. I think we can all agree with economic growth and supporting local businesses.
But where is farming – and the food production industry – in the scoping document?
Not mentioned once.
Yet food and agriculture are significant elements of the rural Dorset economy – not to mention the fact that the document was written at a time when our farmers need support.
Unless farming isn’t considered a business any more? Or someone has decided cows should disappear and Dorset should start looking more like Milton Keynes?
With employment comes transport – and how everything is (or is not) connected.
With the current level of building in rural parts of Dorset, some areas are now in real danger of becoming a suburb or a dormitory village, which affects how a community operates.
How about some real thought in the design, so homes are close to facilities and people really can walk to work without having to negotiate three buses or rely on a car? We really need to see creative planning that actually delivers opportunities and infrastructure that serves the fast-growing villages – and connects them to workplaces, hospitals and other vital services.
It’s all very well for the authorities to tell us to get on a bike or walk, but have you tried cycling in the rain on an unlit rural road with no kerb? Exactly how transport can genuinely be more sustainable and serve rural Dorset is a conundrum. Better connectivity is needed – but will it actually be used? Rural public transport has to work for shift workers, weekend travellers and older people who can no longer drive. I’d really like to see meaningful, innovative change in public transport serving rural Dorset, and I’m not convinced we will see anything soon.
Can we just …
Then there’s the elephant in the room … given that the council’s own timetable doesn’t see the plan adopted until 2029, somewhere during all this there will be another General Election – and quite possibly another council election. If national planning policy changes again, what happens to the Plan then?
Some things need sorting out sooner, rather than waiting for a plan finally to be adopted. There are unadopted roads causing problems for residents and power cuts in villages. Bridges keep getting bashed. Towns are congested. Will decisions on improving road infrastructure or poor access to services be kicked into the long grass, because we’re waiting for “The Plan”?
Can we have a few things just sorted out beforehand?
I sincerely hope the Dorset Local Plan doesn’t become a hamster wheel of consultations, statements and revised timetables that go nowhere – while towns and villages are simultaneously told they need to accommodate more housing, when all we can see are building sites across the county.
I still have a distinct feeling that unless you talk the talk and give the ‘right’ answers, demands for meaningful change may struggle to make themselves heard.
Or perhaps they’ll simply get lost somewhere in the new plan about a plan …
Time does not stand still when a plan is in development. Dorset needs the framework, certainly. But it also needs somebody to get on with fixing the things that are already broken.
Dorset Council Local Plan: Scoping consultation 2026
The Dorset Insider lifts the lid on local politics with frankness and a touch of mischief. Penned by an anonymous Dorset parish councillor whose identity is known and trusted by the editorial team, it offers unvarnished opinion from the front line. Expect candour, clarity and the occasional raised eyebrow.
