I read Chris Loder’s somewhat triumphal summary article about legislation introduced by this Government – in particular the Environment Act with its effect on air quality, biodiversity, water and waste and the controversial Vearse Farm development.

Air quality: The building works will create a massive amount of CO2 from the concrete and other materials used in the building process, there will be years of heavy-polluting diesel truck and construction equipment movements and an inevitable huge increase in car usage once occupied – families won’t go shopping on bicycles!

The number of electric car charging points planned is a derisory small percentage of the total number of houses. Removal of green-field land will also adversely affect CO2 and NOx absorption.

A power station somewhere will have to provide all the day-to-day extra electric energy – where will that come from?

There are few jobs in Bridport so most workers will be travelling along the already heavily congested – “worst polluted stretch of road in the UK” – A35 to Exeter or up to Yeovil and Crewkerne, causing a huge increase in local and longer-distance traffic congestion, noise and air pollution.

Biodiversity: The only sop to this appears to be the inclusion of a few bat-boxes – really, is that it? Building over a water meadow that provides a habitat for a broad variety of rare fauna and flora in a designated AONB is in direct contravention of the stated aims of the Act and will massively – if not terminally – affect the habitat and destroy a massive amount of biodiversity.

Water: This site is effectively a water meadow that acts as a flood plain to absorb run-off from the surrounding hills.

The stated plan suggests channelling and piping to prevent flooding – where is the water going to go? How will this act as a sink for excess flood water after development?

How will the overstretched and aged sewer systems cope when they already occasionally fail and the climate changes we have seen already are causing worrying signs of increased flooding?

What about pollution from the building works (always masses of this) entering the water table during the decade or so of construction?

Waste: We are already suffering from occasional delayed waste collections and problems of dealing with the increased amount of plastics and household waste in the area – where will it all go?

How and where will it be disposed of? Household waste water and sewage is again a big issue, with local treatment plants overstretched and some subject to flooding.

Wessex Water have already held their hands up to having a poor record – and reduced or dropped bonuses.

This Government, including Chris Loder, may have introduced an Environment Act but whilst this was in late stage preparation, the Vearse Farm planning application was approved and it flies in the face of every positive tenet that this Act is supposed to support.

Should we really believe that these environmental concerns are being taken seriously?

Roger Brown

West Bay