Around 200 new homes approved for North Dorset
Dorset Council has given the go ahead to four housing schemes
Almost 200 extra homes could be on the way for North Dorset.
Dorset Council approved four housing applications at an area meeting on Tuesday. Two had previously been controversial and the subject of appeals.
Councillors backed an application for 80 new homes off Common Mead Lane, Gillingham; 55 for Higher Blandford Road, Cann and 40 on a site south of Newlands Manor House, Charlton Marshall.
A smaller application for six homes off Bournemouth Road, Charlton Marshall was rejected mainly because of a steep access. A proposal for seven homes off Frogmore Lane, Sixpenny Handley, was approved, despite local opposition, including from the ward councillor, Piers Brown.
Gillingham town council was among the objectors to the Fairfax Acquisitions Common Mead Lane development despite the company’s offer of gifting a large field north of the site to the town council and a payment of £65,500 to compensate for habitat loss.
An outline application for the site was refused in August 2021 and is currently awaiting appeal.
Objectors were upset about the loss of a field which one, Malcolm Briggs, claimed was used by 50,000 people a year and what was feared could be potential traffic problems onto the lane and from there to the main road.
Other concerns included the impact on the nearby Wyke Conservation Area and the loss of habitat for six types of bats found in the area, together with Great Crested Newts.
After hearing about improvement to the initial proposal the committee agreed that accepting the changes might be a better option that risk the outcome of the appeal, possibly losing the additional benefits which had been gained through negotiation including a 25 per cent affordable housing provision and a 10per cent improvement in biodiversity.
The Cann site already had the principle of development agreed, won on appeal, with the detailed application setting out the layout, landscaping and other details for the 55 homes, 17 of them classed as ‘affordable.’
Shaftesbury Town Council was among the objectors claiming the house designs and layout were not suitable for the setting, considered a ‘gateway’ to the town.
Cllr Tim Cook, the only councillor to vote against the application, said the homes were “stock designs which don’t suit Dorset at all.”
The larger Charlton Marshall application, from Morrish Homes, also had a previous outline consent.
Ten residents and the parish council had written to Dorset Council about a potential flood risk from the site and traffic safety concerns.
One neighbour, a farmer, said the field had flooded four times in recent years despite reassurances that it would be safe for new houses.
The application includes up to 40 per cent affordable homes.