SOME of the key ideas behind Dorset’s Local Plan need to be challenged – according to Dorchester councillors.

They say the idea of continuing housing growth, based on questionable Government targets, is flawed - and proposals about retail development are now out of date in the light of the pandemic.

Town councillors say the changes to society, over the last year, point to a need to re-think the future of our high streets as well as to look more closely at the impacts of climate change. Some have questioned whether the proposed revisions to the Local Plan will be able to be changed quickly enough in a period of upheaval and uncertainty once they have been agreed.

A consultation on proposed revisions in the plan is expected to begin before the end of January, lasting until March.

Dorchester councillor Stella Jones says many of the ideas behind the plan are now flawed in the light of the pandemic – and need a re-think to reflect what has already changed in our lives.

Cllr Fiona Kent-Ledger told a town council planning meeting that the plan needed to be more reactive and less wedded to some ideas from the past. “Covid has changed the face of retail, of everything,” she said.

Cllr Gareth Jones said it was no criticism of Dorset Council but the modelling on which the revisions to the plan are based are now at least two years out of date.

Cllr Andy Canning said that Covid had accelerated a trend away from the High Street shopping which ought to be reflected in the Local Plan review, although it appeared that old ideas were still being pursued.

Said planning committee chairman Cllr Robin Potter: “Remarkably there is very little difference in the plan, compared to two years ago.”

Cllr Molly Rennie said that little appears in the plan review about the trend, now accelerating, of people moving out of cities to areas like Dorset and the consequences that may have for house prices, services and local people. Dorchester town council is expected to further discuss and formulate its reactions to the local plan review at its planning meetings in February and March.

The town council remains opposed to proposals in the plan review for around 4,000 new homes to the north of the county town, claiming that Dorchester is being asked to take an unfair share of the county’s housing growth.