Thanks to the 50 local residents who packed the WI Hall in Bridport last Thursday (24th April) to discuss the latest situation regarding the Vearse Farm urban extension. The public meeting was hosted by Advearse the campaign group.
The guest speaker was Mr Richard Nicholls, Deputy Chair of West Dorset CPRE, who set out the vital importance of opposing this massive and destructive development in order to protect AONB (Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty) land both in Bridport, but also across the whole of England.
With council plans to add another 170 houses to the Vearse Farm development it will, with 930 houses, be double the size of the previous largest build on AONB land. This would set a precedent that would make AONB land an easy target for developers.
The audience were shocked to hear about the large number of brownfield sites available in Briport and the whole of Dorset that were being ignored by the local Council in favour of large scale green field developments fuelling easy profits for developers and house builders.
Sarah Carney made a strong plea for the young people of Bridport, in particular, who were being let down by this focus on satisfying developer greed and not housing need. The number of second homes in the Bridport area has been assessed as far higher than reported by the Council. These second homes remain empty for a large part of the year whilst young local people have no chance of affording even the Government’s “so called” affordable homes.
All of these failings result in the wrong houses being built in the wrong places for the wrong people.
Lewis Gerolemou detailed the many objections raised by local people including the massive increase in traffic congestion, lack of car parking, pressure on an already stretched medical centre and impact on wildlife and landscape.
Donations of over £500 resulted from the meeting in support of the Judicial Review challenge against the Vearse Farm urban extension. With CPRE support a total of £17,200 has been raised to date towards the £34,000 needed for the JR.
Barry Bates closed the meeting by calling upon all concerned people in Bridport and elsewhere to join us in our fight against a totally destructive, unnecessary and misguided development.