A senior Dorset Council planning official has rejected proposals for 130 houses in Stalbridge – deeming the development was not needed and would harm the east of the town.


The outline application from Gladman Developments claimed 40 per cent of the homes on the 5.6-hectare site off Station Road would have been ‘affordable’. But the council’s planning report concluded that Stalbridge had seen a significant amount of housing growth in the past five years and that the town and adjoining parishes do not have a local need for affordable, or market housing, above the number already planned.

The report stated that if all the preferred sites and those already with planning permission were built in Stalbridge, the town could see an additional 610 houses. The decision comes as a plan for 114 houses, 2,000 square metres of employment space of light industrial and retail uses, and vehicular access on farm land south of Lower Road from Land Value Alliances (LVA), is currently at appeal. Dorset Council’s northern area planning committee has rejected the scheme claiming it would ‘overwhelm the community’ and ‘ruin its rural character.’

The decision on the application was set to be decided by a planning inspector at a hearing expected to be held in April. But Land Value Alliances had already appealed the application on the grounds that Dorset Council had taken too long to come to a conclusion. Stalbridge Town Council claimed the rate of current increase is not sustainable and would harm the character of the town.

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