In an attempt to meet government targets on building new homes, Dorset Council has produced a draft Local Plan allocating land for development but it’s proving controversial especially in environmentally protected areas like Purbeck.
An exhibition of the plans were displayed at a public consultation at the Emmanuel Baptist Church in Swanage on Tuesday 30th September 2025, with councillors and planners on hand to answer questions.
Prospect Fields behind Prospect Crescent in Swanage is earmarked for housing and probably offers the best chance to get developers to build homes classed as affordable but some would rather retain the lush green fields
Options for new housing in Swanage
In Swanage, the latest version of the draft Local Plan identifies areas of land to build around 417 new homes.
However it’s unlikely that number will be achieved, as some of the land allocated is designated as a village green and protected from development, and another field belongs to a farmer who doesn’t want to sell his land.
The document allocates new places for employment, along with new gypsy and traveller sites across the Dorset Council area, but the main issue for Swanage residents is the building on green field sites.
Councillor Shane Bartlett, cabinet member for planning and emergency planning at the Local Plan consultation in Swanage
“Sleepwalking into making Dorset a retirement home”
Councillor Shane Bartlett, cabinet member for planning and emergency planning was at the Swanage consultation to explain more about the Local Plan.
Speaking to Swanage.News Shane Bartlett said:
“Over the last 40 years we’ve been sleepwalking into making Dorset a retirement home. Now Dorset Council is faced with an ever rising social care bill and it’s forecast there will be a 28 percent increase in people living with dementia and Alzheimer’s over the next 30 years.
“We need to build housing to attract young families but the definition of affordable housing – 85 percent of market rent – doesn’t work in Dorset where market prices are so high.”
The old grammar school has been replaced with new housing in Swanage but now more is needed
Need for more housing
There is clearly a housing crisis in Dorset with people desperate to find a place to live.
In Swanage alone, in August 2025, there were 182 households with a local connection to Swanage on the Dorset Council housing register, and 207 households who listed Swanage as a preferred area to live.
So there is a need for more housing but Shane is sceptical that the number the government wants built is realistic. He said:
“The government has given us a target to build around 50,000 homes over the next 15 years or so. When we first started drawing up the Local Plan in 2021, the target was much lower but since then it’s been increased by an unbelievable 85 percent. That’s why we’ve had to allocate more land for housing in the latest draft.
“This means the government is saying 3,246 new homes must be built every year, previously the target was 1,793, but developers have never managed to build any more than 1,300 in any one year in the past!”
Examing the plans at the Swanage consultation
“I don’t want development that isn’t sustainable”
At the consultation in Swanage, there were people who supported some development and others who didn’t want any, especially on green fields, so can residents just say they don’t want any change in Swanage?
Shane said:
“I’d really encourage everyone to take part in the consultation. If there’s no voice coming out of Swanage, then others elsewhere, who do speak out, will be doing the decision making.
“But planning officers will only take material planning considerations into account. So objections can be made but they must be around issues like transport, emergency services, landscape, sustainability of a development and whether or not it’s on a flood plain.
“I don’t want development that isn’t sustainable and it’s likely that a lot of these sites across Dorset won’t make it into the final draft, but if we can’t meet the government targets, we need to be able to provide solid evidence of why it isn’t possible.
“If there are good reasons not to develop a plot of land, then residents need to fill in the survey and tell us why.”
A steady flow of residents and local councillors attended the event in Swanage
“Should be building one or two new towns in Dorset”
And what does Shane predict for the future in terms of Dorset and housing? He said:
“We need to have a vision. We should be building one or two new towns in Dorset – in fact we should have been doing that 40 years ago.
“Our market towns were created when people used a horse and cart to get around, with narrow roads that can’t cope with more traffic. We can’t just keep on bolting on more housing developments to our towns.
“In Dorchester there’s still a plan to build north of the town – a garden village – to encourage more footfall in the town centre to boost the shops, cafes, and cinema, but there’s a limit to the development.
“If we’d proposed to build two new towns in this plan, it would probably have taken us about another 15 years before we could get the Local Plan passed, but that is the sort of development required for the future.”
The aim is to have a second consultation of the Dorset Local Plan in August 2026, with a final draft produced by December 2026. The intention is for it to be adopted by 2027.
Further information
- View the Local Plan documents online
- Read the Swanage housing options from page 405 in this document
- Complete the Local Plan consultation questionnaire by Monday 13th October 2025
