Former Gillingham mayor Roger Weeks has voiced his concerns over proposals in Dorset Council’s draft Local Plan to allocate more than a thousand new homes to the town.

Councillor Weeks made clear his issue with the proposals – which include up to 800 potential new houses on farmland north of Wavering Lane between Peacemarsh and North Dorset rugby club – during a meeting with the leader of Dorset Council, Councillor Nick Ireland.

Addressing Gillingham Town Council on Monday evening, Councillor Ireland told councillors: ‘I know that Gillingham is more acceptable to development than other areas of the county.’

However, a few minutes later Councillor Weeks told Councillor Ireland: ‘I want to correct you slightly about what you said earlier about Gillingham being agreeable to development more than most. We don’t have much choice, frankly.’

Councillor Weeks, who was mayor until May this year, said that the town’s infrastructure was already ‘creaking at the edges’ and that Gillingham tended to get only about half of any new infrastructure it was promised.

He pointed to traffic congestion and the inability of the secondary school to expand as examples of infrastructure issues in the town.

‘So to give the impression that we are agreeable is not strictly speaking accurate as far as I’m concerned and I think as far as a large proportion of the Gillingham public is concerned,’ said Councillor Weeks.

‘Increasing our allocation of houses is going to cause us a headache,’ he added.

Councillor Ireland made clear that the Local Plan was not set in stone and that it was up to local people to respond and say what they thought of the proposals.

‘The more responses we get the better. The more responses we get, that allows us to push back against government housing numbers,’ he said.

To comment on the plans residents can visit the Dorset Council Local Plan page at www.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk/dorset-is-changing or consult a hard copy of the plan at the library.
Dorset Council will also hold a consultation event at Gillingham Town Hall on Thursday 25 September from 2pm to 7pm. The consultation process ends on 13 October.