DORSET Council’s leadership has denied that the authority had adopted a policy of ‘radio silence’ over proposals to revise the area’s Local Plan.

On Tuesday it broke that silence to say that it would be offering another two years of consultation with the aim of adopting a new plan in 2026, two to three years later that originally planned.

It has also said that it does not want to offer land to make up for a shortfall of up to 9,000 homes from the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole area.

One of the main contentious issues remains the idea of 4,000 homes north of Dorchester stretching from the Kingston Maurward roundabout to the water meadows close to Charminster.

There has been, and remains, widespread opposition to the idea with the council continuing to investigate the option helped by a £135,000 ‘garden communities’ grants.

Planning portfolio holder Cllr David Walsh said the extra time would allow more consideration to the 9,000 public comments on the proposed changes, which compares well to 1,000 on the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole proposed changes.

Cllr Walsh also said that more would be done to get “the right development in the right place” and at the right quality and to take account of climate and ecological change.

In a statement issued after Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting Cllr Walsh said he wanted to see housing numbers reflect the needs of Dorset, “not blindly follow a government calculation and not include housing for BCP Council.”

“We have listened to you, and it became clear that the National Policy, regulations and local constraints in place for councils when devising these plans were preventing us from coming up with the best possible Local Plan that reflects the needs and aspirations of Dorset’s residents,” he said.

Questions have continued on a regular basis about the Dorchester North proposals – the latest from campaigners Jane Ashdown and Giles Watts.

Ms Ashdown claims there had been ‘radio silence’ about the Local Plan since January.

Giles Watts in a question to Dorset Council asked why the authority had not published any analysis at all from a consultation exercise on the plan revision which took place more than a year ago.

Cllr Walsh said he hoped that Dorset would be a pilot for new ways of working out housing need, but had yet to receive confirmation of a temporary exemption from housing land supply requirements from the Government until the new Dorset Council Local Plan is adopted.

Mr Watts, who represents a coalition of groups including some town and parish councils, has previously said that there were grounds to argue that Dorset had an ‘exceptional circumstances case’ not to comply with the Government’s standard method of assessing housing need, mainly because of the large amount of green belt or Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

Dorset Council had previously persisted with a 39,000 new homes figure – even offering to take an addition 8,000 homes for Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole.