CAMPAIGNERS fighting green belt development in Dorset have welcomed an unexpected ‘stay of execution’ on the decision to build 48,100 new homes in Dorset by 2026.

New Secretary of State for communities and local government John Denham had been due to return the final version of the South West Regional Spatial Strategy (RSS) by the end of this month.

This controversial document lays out plans for 48,100 new homes in Dorset by 2026, and would cover swathes of greenbelt, with 1,500 homes planned around Bournemouth, 2,750 at Lytchett Minster, Lytchett Matravers and Upton, and 2,400 at West Parley, Corfe Mullen and Wimborne.

But the decision, already delayed from January, has been held off again thanks to a successful legal challenge to the RSS for the East of England by councils in that area.

A High Court judge ruled that the published document had failed to meet EU environmental assessment requirements. The verbal ruling has thrown the South West plan into uncertainty. Yesterday the Government Office for the South West announced the RSS process in this region was on hold while the implications were considered.

A letter to council chief executives added: “It is not possible to set a new timetable until the implications of the judgement have been clarified, and what action is required, if any.”

A new deadline has yet to be set – but it is not likely to be until after Parliamentary summer recess ends in October.

The delay has been welcomed by local campaigners in the Dorset Green Belt Protection Consortium, who held a meeting on Monday to agree a resistance campaign.

Spokesman Terry Stewart, president of the Dorset Campaign to Protect Rural England, said: “The level of protest against the proposed environmental vandalism was unprecedented.”

Dorset Councils have universally agreed to legally challenge the RSS when it is finally issued.