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.
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.
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.
| 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 are now reviewing all responses as we prepare the full plan. See the latest updates, timetable and next steps.
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'.
The consultation document and appendices (including the site options) are also available to view.
There are a number of supporting documents that provide further detail and background evidence to the Local Plan consultation.
Additional supporting information can be found at our Dorset Council Local Plan evidence page.
We ran a series of in person events during the consultations where you could find out more about them.
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.
