Those parish councillors who are a bit long in the tooth will recall working on Neighbourhood Plans designed to set out a strategy for their parishes. Although they were not primarily focused on planning and housing, they often ended up focusing heavily on where new homes could be located.
Over the years, as I have worked on plans while honing the diplomacy skills of a Middle East peacekeeper to try and get a consensus on where homes should be built, one thing has concerned me: the constant moving goalposts and meaningless timelines.
When Dorset was unable to meet its housing targets in 2019, neighbourhood plans effectively died a death. Any preferred building site or settlement boundary soon came under threat. They were resurrected briefly, but now Dorset is once again without a five year housing supply.
It takes time to draw up a plan, engage appropriately with the public and get the specialist support required for what is a highly technical piece of work.
Then we heard this week that Dorset Council is going to have to stop and start over with their 2025 Local Plan … but it’s only going to cost £1 million.
Every time we parish councils get ahead by finalising a plan, pacifying angry residents or challenging inappropriate building, someone moves the goalposts. We’ve had the 2025 Dorset Local Plan consultation plan has been out for a long time and we have had to deal with local anger over the planned destruction of the countryside.
There were no council workshops or exhibitions in my parish (I wonder why). For many of us, this was not a ‘consultation’ but a blatant opening of the doors to a barrage of soulless tacky estate planning applications.
Something worse
Most people have heard the story of the landowner who woke up one morning to a crowd of angry faces at his door demanding to know why his fields were being sold for development … except he had no idea his land was a proposed site in the Local Plan. A council worker looking at a map had thought it would be a fit …
Or there’s the blank look when a poor council officer tries to explain a transport hub to a villager … in a village with no bus service.
Sadly, each time anyone asks a question, they get the same old excuse: the council is ‘working on the plan’. Sometimes it’s ‘the Government rules’.
Because of this, we now have something far worse.
The Local Plan now needs to be a new plan for Dorset because of the government’s planning system changes – which means parishes are stuck with the aftermath of developers demanding more and more fields to churn up. Developers are laughing, they know that because the targets aren’t being met – for all sorts of reasons – they now have free rein to do whatever they like. It’s a relentless game of seeing how many fields they can buy up to build on, destroying villages and communities as they go. And none of the resultant housing is affordable on a Dorset wage, very little is social, and the posh £600k+ homes aren’t selling. If you have a £600k budget, you can get a lot more space and land by not buying a new build.
Worst of all, developers get what they want. Every time.
A new plan
So what would I like to see instead of the council writing another plan about a plan?
I’d like to have an urgent discussion about abandoned houses and buildings in Dorset that need to be rapidly re-possessed and developed into homes for local people, especially key workers. Currently, they are a magnet for arsonists and drug addicts and anti social behaviour – and they are unsightly. And while there are some good examples where this has happened, it’s not being done fast enough. If Mr Burnham is talking meaningful devolution, can town and parish councils oversee the repurposing of some of these places and use the rent to generate income?
I’d like a debate on local food security, given the drought and impending climate change issues. ’m not vilifying cows, but talking about getting robust policies in place to protect agricultural land and community green spaces, so more food can be grown locally. We must consider resilience with coming hotter summers and wetter winters. Instead, we have developers greedily eyeing up farmland while brownfield sites are left untouched because they cost more to develop than a nice empty green field.
Like most people across inland Dorset, I’d like a meaningful discussion on infrastructure which is not just about the coast. Some of the road junctions in North and Mid Dorset have always been a bit dodgy but now, thanks to more and faster traffic on the road, they are hazardous on a good day – and that’s when the verge vegetation is cut. Some of them need roundabouts, controlled crossing points or traffic lights to make them safer. Are we getting anything? We’ll probably have to wait for the next plan about a plan … And why is there more traffic on the road? Because a lot of places are too challenging to access by walking or cycling, and public transport is non-existent. You can’t even get a taxi because they are all contracted to do school runs.
Infrastructure needs to be in place before building starts.
That’s a pipe dream, apparently. We also have gridlocked towns because the main road through them cannot cope with modern huge lorries and the sheer increase in traffic volume.
Just … stop
But what I’d like most of all is time to think instead of being railroaded into someone else’s deadlines. I’d like the time to consult properly with parishioners and come up with a plan that isn’t going to be made obsolete by the next government or a council unable to meet housing targets. I want a plan which is owned by the community. Instead of moving the goalposts, I want a strategy that futureproofs our rural communities with high quality and truly affordable housing.
The Dorset Insider lifts the lid on local politics with frankness and a touch of mischief. Penned by an anonymous parish councillor whose identity is known to and trusted by the editorial team, it offers unvarnished opinion from the front line. Expect candour, clarity and the occasional raised eyebrow.
