West Dorset MP Chris Loder has urged Housing Secretary Michael Gove to instigate an urgent review of the Dorset Local Plan in order to discontinue the proposed 4,000 home North of Dorchester development proposal at a meeting in Dorchester on Friday afternoon.
Having invited the Housing Secretary to Dorchester earlier this year, the MP met with the Housing Secretary on Friday 6th May where Mr Loder expressed the concerns of Dorchester residents over the proposals for Persimmon Homes to be building thousands of houses on the outskirts of the town. Mr Loder also spoke of the need to ensure the Local Plan focuses more on delivering for the needs of West Dorset communities rather than just a few enormous developments, hoovering economic life out of small villages. Mr Loder also took the opportunity to press the need for more community housing and or community land trust initiatives to ensure local housing for local people.
Mr Loder said; ‘the Local Plan needs to provide local housing for local people first, not just enormous developments that hoover life out of local villages. We need the right housing in the right areas enabling housing for families and working people to live here and to deliver services for the community, as well as supporting the rural economy. My intervention with the Minister has highlighted the need to change the way in which the local plan is constructed that will better match the supply of housing with the demand’.
Chris Loder with Michael Gove