Dorset Council Local Plan Options Consultation 2025

Warning The Dorset Council Local Plan opportunities consultation is closed. We’re now reviewing all responses as we prepare the full plan. See the Local Development Scheme for our timetable and next steps.

Dorset is changing – help us shape it

Dorset Council is preparing a new Local Plan to guide development. An options consultation was held in August to October 2025 to look at how we could meet development needs across the Dorset Council area, and to identify opportunity sites for new homes, employment land and traveller sites. It also identified areas of opportunity for wind and solar power.

Responses to the consultation

We received a large number of responses to the consultation. Due to the volume and complexity of the feedback received, responses are being reviewed and prepared for publishing in stages. You can view responses published so far on our 2025 options consultation responses search page.

Sites for removal

We invited landowners to submit land they considered to be developable to us, but we were also required to consider other opportunities that we had not been informed about.

During the consultation, Dorset Council was notified about a number of privately owned option sites where development would not be acceptable. These are published below, indicating whether the information received results in removal of whole or part of the site.

We will amend this list if we become aware of further sites in this category when we review all the consultation responses. In the meantime we ask landowners who do not want their land taken forward to please contact us using the details at the bottom of this page. Once ownership has been checked the area will be removed from further inclusion in the draft Local Plan.

Sites for removal from the Local Plan Options consultation
Site code	Site name	Settlement	Whole or part site removal
GT/LMUP/001	Land adjacent to Telephone Exchange	Lytchett Matravers and Upton	Whole
LA/BEAM/008, 009	Cherry Cottage Farm	Beaminster	Whole
LA/BRID/010	West Bay Caravan Site	Bridport	Whole
LA/BRWK/003, 006	South Drove	Broadmayne	Part
LA/CHOK/008a	Land on the north side of Hayward Lane	Child Okeford	Part
LA/CMUL/002, 010	Coventry Lodge and West of Pardy's Hill	Corfe Mullen	Part
LA/LMAT/003, 012, 020, 024, 027	South of Deans Drove	Lytchett Matravers	Part
LA/LMUP/016, 017	Land at Lytchett Minster & Bere Farm	Lytchett Matravers and Upton	Whole
LA/PORT/003	Portland Hospital	Portland	Whole
LA/SMAR/005, 006, 007	Land at Sturminster Marshall	Sturminster Marshall	Part
LA/SMAR/014	Land west of A350	Sturminster Marshall	Part
LA/SNEW/004, 016	Land west of Glue Hill	Sturminster Newton	Part
LA/SWAN/018	Land north of Washpond Lane and west of Darkie Lane	Swanage	Whole
LA/SYMO/004	Land at south of A35 Higher Eype	Bridport	Whole
LA/VERW/024	Land to the west of Albany Drive	Three Legged Cross	Part

We’re now reviewing all responses as we prepare the full plan. See the Local Development Scheme for our timetable and next steps.

Interactive maps

You can find interactive maps of the opportunity sites we consulted on using the Dorset Council Local Plan Options Consultation layers on Dorset Explorer. Here, you can also view the opportunity areas for renewable energy, by selecting 'Local plans', then 'Dorset Council Local Plan options consultation 2025' in the Layers menu, and then opening 'Renewable energy opportunity areas'.

Versions of the consultation documents for downloading

The consultation document and appendices (including the site options) are also available to view.

Supporting documents

There are a number of supporting documents that provide further detail and background evidence to the Local Plan consultation.

Background papers

Other evidence and information

Additional supporting information can be found at our Dorset Council Local Plan evidence page.

Events

We ran a series of in person events during the consultations where you could find out more about them.

Previous Local Plan consultation

We have consulted on the Local Plan before and received valuable feedback. This is a new consultation as we have updated the plan based partly on feedback and included new options based on the new housing targets set by the current government. The Plan includes sites that could be identified for new homes.

Planning Policy (Local Plan Consultation)

Name: Planning Policy Team (Local Plan Consultation)
Email: [email protected]
Tel: 01305 838334
Full contact details