In 2014 the East Dorset District Council Local Plan was adopted which allocated land to the east and west of Parley Crossroads for development. Both applications are now being progressed and whilst the development will happen, the details are still at the planning stages.

The land east of New Road on the crossroads is currently seeing the near completion of an 86-bed care home and more recently has been subject to a reserved matters application by Lidl in respect of the food store on the development. The access to the site and the link / relief road – which goes through the estate – was agreed under the planning application 3/17/3609 and granted by Dorset Council in February 2021. This comes under the control of Wyatt Homes to deliver, with financial support from Dorset Council.

The parish council is concerned over the increased traffic that will be generated by the additional housing and commercial provision as well as the effect the increased vehicle movements will have on the congestion in the village and the subsequent noise and pollution impact on residents.

All elements of the development other than the link / relief road and access were stated as ‘reserved matters’. These ‘reserved matters’ form the more recent application for the foodstore and the imminent application for the housing, and then the local centre. These applications are split between Lidl, Bellway and Wyatt respectively.

A large proportion of the land is now owned by Bellway Homes, who will not be holding a public meeting. Instead on 7 December, they held a webinar which is still available on www.newroadwestparley.co.uk.

A council spokesman said: “Feedback received by residents is that they are shocked that the proposal now spreads over a greater area of the site, with the apparent absence of the community facilities of allotments, open space and play area. They feel their views are being ignored and that the Bellway ‘experts’ failed to answer questions effectively. The environment representative was completely unaware of the recent removal of trees and hedgerows on the B3073 to facilitate commencement of the access. This is likely to be excused as the land being in a separate ownership, yet later in the webinar representatives explained that the two owners will be working closely on the delivery of the site. Equally shocking was their statement that the flats were three to four-storeys to dampen the noise to other dwellings on the site, emanating from the high volume of traffic anticipated to be using the link road.”

Only 19 per cent of the development is allocated to affordable housing, when on rolled back greenbelt land such as this site, it can be anything up to 50 per cent.

However, the developers will be making contribution to existing providers of health and education, as well as toward improvements to the highways. The level of contribution was fixed at the stage the outline planning application was granted by Dorset Council.

Whilst this is still in the consultation phase and comments were welcomed by 17 December and beyond, Bellway anticipate submitting the formal planning application in early 2022 which could see construction start as early as autumn 2022 and initial occupation by autumn 2023.

In addition, a planning application is expected to be submitted to Dorset Council in the spring next year for land on the western side of New Road, the counterpart development by Cala Homes behind Ridgeway.

The parish council said that it welcomes residents’ views on the applications.