COUNCIL bosses insist major efforts have been made to ensure everyone can have their say on the Local Plan.

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, including the CPRE.

"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.

"The plan itself is around 600 pages long out of necessity as it covers a range of technical issues across a very wide and diverse area. We are not expecting many people to read the whole thing, so we have specifically designed the survey so that respondents only need to read and comment on the parts they are interested in.

"We are required by central government to plan for the housing target calculated using their standard approach. If we don’t plan to meet these targets, we are required to demonstrate exceptional circumstances. We appreciate that the CPRE by its very nature will question this need to build housing, but 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."