Bridport Town Council says the Dorset Council Local Plan "must do more to meet Bridport's needs".

The town council finalised its response to the draft local plan and is calling for major improvements to the document.

The town council's planning committee agreed its 28-page response to a consultation on the plan being carried out by Dorset Council, along with summaries for residents, highlighting its concerns.

The 670-page draft local plan aims to guide what can be built, and where, in the Dorset Council area up to 2038, covering issues like housing, employment, the environment, transport and the economy.

The town council response welcomes care village proposals for Bridport and the opening up of the riverside area alongside St Michael's Trading Estate. However, it also describes the document as "rushed" and calls for:

• More attention to community's needs in policies for Vearse Farm, the town centre, West Bay, tourism, affordable housing and access to, from and around Bridport
• Better overall strategies for public transport, parking, culture and the economy
• More attention to the climate and ecological crisis, including policies to help residents make their homes energy efficient
• The concept of 'eco towns' to be considered for future development of Bridport

Town council leader, councillor Dave Rickard, said: "A new local plan is badly needed as it protects the area from unwanted building and developments, but the draft as it stands isn't fit for purpose.

"I urge residents to join us in highlighting the shortcomings by responding to the consultation in support of our comments.

"The final version really must do more to meet Bridport's needs and to provide coordinated services across Dorset, which address the real social needs and the climate emergency."

Alongside its formal response, the town council has published summaries of the local plan and its views, in text and video form. Full details can be found here. Hard copies of the summary and full response are available to residents by calling 01308 456722.

Planning committee chairman, Cllr Dave Bolwell, said: "The hard work put in by town councillors should make it easy for people to send in their views on the local plan. Our detailed response, or the summary version, can easily be copied or adapted, or people can simply send a comment to Dorset Council saying they support the town council's view.

"The more people that do this, the more likely we are to see the plan improved for our area."

Cllr Sarah Williams, who chaired a working group of councillors to analyse the draft plan, said: "We spent about 18 hours in total poring over the fine detail and in particular the parts most relevant to Bridport and West Bay.

"The result is an in-depth and considered response and I hope residents will use the document to press Dorset Council for a plan that better caters for our environment, economy, housing, transport and community facilities."

Cllr David Walsh, Dorset Council portfolio holder for planning, said: "There has been nothing 'rushed' about the drafting of the plan, which was published in December and will take until 2023 to be fully adopted. The eight-week long consultation has also been thoroughly considered and planned for over the last year.

"Unfortunately, we cannot wait for things to get back to normal or for planning changes to be implemented as we would not then have a local plan in place, meaning we'd have less influence over where development happens in Dorset. We have consulted with parish and town councils and have met - virtually - with many organisations.

"We have drawn upon work carried out in previous local plans because considerable progress had been made, not to mention that residents had already fed into that process. But we have updated this work, considered previous proposals in the new context of a larger geographical area and included new information and projections for Dorset where appropriate."

Cllr Walsh stated Dorset Council is required by central government to plan for the housing target calculated using its standard approach.

"If we don't plan to meet these targets," he added, "we are required to demonstrate exceptional circumstances.

"We must ensure that Dorset residents have places to live and work - especially young people - and our local economy is able to support those who already live here.

"This is a true consultation for the draft local plan and, because of the pandemic, we are doing more than we ever have before to publicise and support the consultation to ensure as many people as possible can have their say."

Full details of the local plan consultation, which closes on March 15, can be found on the Dorset Council website.

Residents can send their comments using an online form, by email to [email protected] or by post to Planning Policy, Dorset Council, South Walks House, Dorchester, DT1 1UZ.

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