A FEW local matters this week.

Dorset Council has released an updated housing strategy.

Readers may remember that the proposed local plan, consulted on in 2021, stalled when the administration in Dorchester couldn’t agree among itself and BCP how many houses were needed.

Rishi Sunak then dropped house building targets to cement his brittle control over his own party, and the local plan has been on the shelf ever since.

We now won’t get to see the ‘pre-submission publication’ until Q4 2024, which will likely be after the next general election. Convenient.

As a stop gap, we now have a housing strategy. Whereas the local plan neared 1,000 pages, this strategy document is a mere 13. And, quelle surprise, it has no meaningful proposals in it.

Yes, it tells us that 4,488 households are on the social housing waiting list but says nothing about how much social housing the council is commissioning. At a higher level, 1,757 new housing units a year will be required in Dorset to meet its needs. Only 600 were built in the year to March 2023.

It’s important that council officials feel some pressure from local residents who need housing, rather than predominantly from those that don’t want any new homes built. So please participate in the consultation. Just do an internet search for ‘Dorset Housing Consultation’.

Speaking of officials, residents of Shaftesbury were dismayed last month to learn that the consultation on the future of the town’s high street has been kicked back until next summer. Alfred hasn’t been able to get to the bottom of it, and our local Dorset county councillors don’t appear to be any better informed.

Whether you believe pedestrianisation is the right move or not, it’s galling that it takes so long for county hall to even listen to the people of Shaftesbury, let alone do anything to support our ailing high street.

I would really like to see our Tory councillors and MP apply some pressure to their Tory administration, rather than maintain it’s now’t to do with them.

Finally, a word on the Bibby Stockholm shambles in Portland.

As I write, the asylum seekers marched on to the vessel with great fanfare have been marched off again, due to an outbreak of legionella.

It looks like PR trumped safety as the barge was put into use before legionella test results were returned.

What other corners have been cut? The barge is designed to accommodate shift workers, where half its inhabitants are out building oil rigs while the others are asleep. 500 people sleeping there at the same time is a worry, as comrades in the fire brigade union have previously pointed out.

GREG WILLIAMS
on behalf of Dorset Labour