by Trevor Bevins, Local Democracy Reporting Service.
Dorchester is set for a wave of development during 2026 after Dorset Council granted permission for a series of projects in the town offering new homes, business upgrades, and heritage improvements.
One of the most significant approvals is for Dorset County Hospital on Williams Avenue, where ‘in principle’ or outline plans have been agreed for the partial demolition of some buildings and the creation of up to 95 homes, most expected to be earmarked for public sector workers. The consent includes landscaping and improved access arrangements to the site, off Damers Road. The scheme marks a major step in addressing local housing needs while reshaping a key site in the town centre but will require reserved matters, or detailed, planning consent before it can go ahead.
Affordable housing also features elsewhere in the town: the former Magna Housing HQ, Oak House, off Poundbury Road will be demolished to make way for a four-storey building providing 79 affordable key worker homes. (pictured).
Other affordable housing schemes include the redevelopment of the former tennis courts adjacent to the Borough Gardens where permission has been given for tree works to improve access ready for preparatory works on the site where homes for local people on lower incomes will be built.
As with a nearby housing development, at Nappers House on West Walks, the community housing project has been hit by a series of delays caused by the complexities of building near a scheduled monument, the town’s Walks, which were once the line of Roman defensive walls.
Nearby at Nappers House, near the Borough Gardens main entrance, 14 almshouses and a community room have been agreed, replacing eight existing outdated almshouses. The project aims to modernise facilities for residents while preserving the charitable status of the site, the project having been held up for more than two years awaiting key planning policy decisions.
Other approvals include seven self-build homes at Fordington Farm off Alington Avenue with access close to the rail bridge.
The site redevelopment includes the demolition of several, existing, farm buildings.
Permission had been delayed by negotiations over site access.
