By Letter Writer

Readers will have seen from the stunning aerial photograph of the soon to be developed Vearse Farm on the front page of the Bridport News just how close it is to the Jurassic coast.

The National Trust was founded to stop urbanisation right on our historic coasts. Readers might reflect that the loss of this farmland in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty should only have occurred in exceptional circumstances.

Although it is on paper committed to preserving its AONB, somehow Dorset Council has forced approval for a massive housing estate on the site. Of course, the affordable houses which it will offer are welcome but the issues which protesters have raised for over 10 years have yet to be tackled.

Safety concerns are amongst the most important of these. The cycle and pedestrian approach from the site will deliver those using it in the Bus Station with a hazardous onward walk on very narrow pavements into town. The current plans to allow construction traffic for the building site to go ahead at the same time as the building of the Miles Cross roundabout are sheer lunacy.

The Planners have ignored the Council’s own climate emergency declaration and will allow over 300 homes to be built with gas boilers. There is minimal provision for solar panels

As yet there are no plans actually agreed with Wessex Water regarding the management of the sewerage and ground water runoff which the site will create. This is frightening, granted OFWAT have criticised Wessex Water for repeated discharges of sewage into the sea whilst the prospect of flooding elsewhere in Bridport and West Bay is ever more likely.

The planners could offer no guarantees from Western Power about whether it can provide for Bridport’s electricity needs once Foundry Lea is underway.

Dorset Council have rushed through a scheme in the interests of commercial gain rather than public wellbeing.

There is a myth that housing development is held back by the planning process.

Vearse Farm proves the developers hold all the cards. Two weeks ago, in his column Chris Loder wrote of an upcoming Commons Bill

‘This Bill will also give local people a greater say in local development which will make a huge difference when it comes to mass housing development on the outer edges of rural towns.

This is too late for Bridport but let us hope it will save other areas of outstanding beauty.

Barry and Debra Bates

West Allington,

Bridport