Achievements

SUCCESSES

Wind Turbines

1. Our greatest success is undoubtedly the defeat of the application for 9 Wind Turbines in the Winterborne Valley. This was achieved in cooperation with DART (Dorset Against Rural Turbines) after a battle lasting 16 months. First of all the District Councils were won over and then finally the County Council recommended the rejection of the planning application. The developer, however, appealed to Regional Government (instead of to the District Council) on the last day of his six month window of opportunity and was given two time extensions, which legally they did not have the power to do, but finally they were told the appeal was too late and it was quashed. (further information on this appears on page 19 of our Autumn Review in Terry Stewart's article).

CPRE Mark

2. We awarded our first CPRE Mark to Western Design Architects for their scheme BOWER at Gold Hill, Childe Okeford. It consists of nine affordable houses, four of which are in shared ownership, keeping the cost to the purchaser down and ensuring that they will remain in the same sector. The other five houses are for renting from the waiting list. BOWER is built on the edge of the village and has a pleasant outlook with low-lying fields running back to the river behind. The Cross family of Gold Hill Organic Farm made the land available below market price to meet local needs. Twynham Housing Association instigated the scheme, East Dorset Housing Association took it up and managed it, and the funding came from the Housing Corporation and North Dorset District Council. (Further information on this is contained in an article by Susan Bennett on page 5 of our Autumn Review).

Planning in Lyme Regis

3. In Lyme Regis (Chairman Celia Marriage) we have had three successes. Firstly, at the Bay Hotel, in the middle of Lyme's Marine Parade, which is a nationally recognised emblem and a very important element in the town's hotel stock. Early this year the new owner applied to convert it into flats. To CPRE's amazement the Planning Officer recommended approval. There then ensued four weeks of desperate work by an ad hoc group of objectors assembled by the Lyme Regis Society (affiliated to CPRE), which researched the Council's Local Plan, came up with nine policies which the application contravened and mailed a complete and comprehensive analysis to all members of the Planning Committee, supported by 60 letters of objection and a petition which acquired 400 names in one day. Some 60 residents attended the planning meeting to give support to their speakers, and the application was refused unanimously. The applicant appealed but then withdrew, largely because he realised it would be fruitless. (Incidently it fell to the objectors to do all this work because the West Dorset District Council (WDDC) had failed to put any measures protecting hotel stock into the current local plan.

Secondly, Orange Telecoms applied for an enlargement and upgrade of its mast in a prominent position at the eastern entry of the town. Again officers recommended approval. Objectors pointed out that the site was in The Dorset AONB, was within 75m of an SSSI, of a cSAC and of the Jurassic Coast WHS. They also drew parallels with a dismissed appeal for a telecoms mast in neighbouring East Devon. The committee refused the application and Orange have not appealed.

Thirdly, an application for a house on the 13th and last plot at Haye Gardens, a development on the edge of Lyme, which has been dogged by land instability, has been refused. Neighbouring residents have had their houses devalued by cracks and slippage and others feared it. The history of the site was an unhappy mix of partial and overlapping soil surveys, changes of plan, overdevelopment and greed. Again, unaccountably, officers recommended approval. The developers withdrew their appeal and sold the site to a different firm which is so far acting responsibly. It is of note that all three of the above applications were recommended for approval by officers, but were rejected by councillors at committee on substantial and not emotional grounds after concerted, well-researched and well-voiced local objections.

Major Inquiries

4. Other major events in our year have been contributions to the West Dorset Local Plan Inquiry, the Weymouth Relief Road Inquiry and the Dorset Waste Plan Inquiry.

5. Finally we have been represented in person or in writing on the AONB Committee, our objections have swayed decisions on applications for sheltered accommodation near Iwerne Minster, we have contributed to the Local Development Frameworks and, according to our National Office statistics of 31st October, we are third equal in the recruiting stakes for 2005!