Numerous representations have been submitted to Dorset Council objecting to detailed proposals for 26 homes off Haywards Lane, Child Okeford, which were controversially accepted in outline by the Northern Planning committee in July last year and finally approved in April this year.

Comments are open until July 17 on the application P/RES/2021/01582 by ELT Bournemouth submitted by agents Chapman Lily Planning. At the time of the outline application, the Child Okeford community, parish council and county councillor Sherry Jespersen – chairman of the northern planning committee – failed to persuade the committee to reject the proposal on agricultural land outside the village settlement boundary.

The committee voted in support by eight votes to two, with two abstentions, after being told it merely ‘rounded off’ the settlement boundary, was sustainable and acceptable in the light of Dorset Council’s lack of a five-year housing supply, and promised 40 per cent affordable housing and other S106 contributions. The numerous grounds for objection were the impact on the character of the village of the number of homes in addition to another 130 then under consideration.

Two of those have since been refused, one on appeal for 68 homes at the self-storage facility on Gold Hill, and the other for another 65 dwellings opposite the business park in Lower Common Road under officer delegated powers in June this year, but further plans for 28 homes on the self-storage site which were submitted in March last year remain undetermined.

Objectors were then and continue to be concerned that the access is close to that for St Nicholas CE primary school on the opposite side of the busy road, and that too little on-site parking is proposed. They are also concerned at the impact on local services and the design.

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