‘Hands off our green belt!’

That’s the message from district councillors in East Dorset to John Denham MP – the newly appointed cabinet minister for communities and local government.

Mr Denham has replaced Hazel Blears in steering the government’s controversial Regional Spatial Strategy, which recommends nearly 6,500 homes for the district over the next 20 years.

Colehill councillor Anne Holland and colleague Cllr Stuart Hearn added an emergency motion to a recant meeting of East Dorset District Council’s (EDDC) policy committee.

“When we heard that Hazel Blears had resigned, we saw it was a golden opportunity for the council to restate its opposition to plans in the draft Regional Spatial Strategy for East Dorset.

“John Denham is a Dorset man and we hope he will listen,” said Cllr Holland.

Council leader Cllr Spencer Flower has taken the motion forward, writing on behalf of the district to ask Mr Denham to reconsider plans that would allow 2,400 homes to be built on green belt in Corfe Mullen, Ferndown, and north of Wimborne.

“The council hopes that Mr Denham will now take time to reconsider the strategy's content and its impact on East Dorset, its residents and, most importantly, the significant impact on the green belt,” said Cllr Flower.

He restated the council’s commitment to work with Dorset County Council, and councils in Bournemouth and Poole, in pursuing court action if no change is made to the draft strategy.

“EDDC will continue to abide by its existing pledge to take all reasonable steps to mount a legal challenge,” said Cllr Flower.

A spokesman for the Government Office of the South West said the department would need to consider the full implications of a successful legal challenge to the draft RSS plans for the east of England.