Dorset Council planners are considering an application to build a temporary trailer park on an area of natural beauty next to the river Stour
by Nicci Brown.

Hundreds descended on a public exhibition promoting a controversial planning application to build a trailer park for Ukrainian refugees on Crown Meadows, between Blandford and Bryanston.
They were met at the entrance to the Blandford Parish Centre by members and supporters of the Bryanston Park Preservation Group, established some years ago under the banner of ‘Save Our Crown Meadows’ to fight a proposal by the then owners the Crown Estates to include housing development of the site within the North Dorset Local Plan, a proposal which was eventually rejected in 2014.
The majority of visitors to the day-long exhibition on Thursday 29 September came voicing their opposition to the new scheme put forward by the new landowners, Bryanston Estates and the Rothermere Foundation, who were represented by their agents Savills.
Over 100 objections have been received by Dorset Council to the application, which was submitted in July this year and is now being considered by council planners. Savills said the exhibition was an opportunity to present their proposals in more detail to the local community and hear local concerns. They stressed that the change of use of the Deer Park Farm being sought was only temporary, the improved biodiversity of the site when the trailers were removed after five years, and the urgency to provide refugee accommodation.
But objectors fear what has been dubbed a ‘Trojan horse’, which in the long-term will be followed by the previously rejected housing development sought for the site, and accused the applicants of ‘cynical ploy’ and abuse of the plight of Ukrainian refugees, one of whom is currently a guest of opposition campaign leader John Cook and his wife Lexi.
Svitlana Nazankevych said Ukrainians staying in this country needed to be somewhere they could find work, and would not want to be grouped together in an isolated community that limited their opportunity to integrate. The majority, she said, wanted to return to their own country and join other family members as soon as they could, and some already have.