So many people when talking about the Waitrose Application say - 'Well, if we don't have a supermarket, it'll be houses or a development of flats.  This is not the case - Wimborne is not faced with a choice; it is not a question of one or the other.  A development of flats or houses would, of course, like the supermarket, require Planning Permission.   We have been advised by the EDDC Planning Department that such permission would be much more difficult to achieve than permission for a supermarket!    

This is the reason - the Cricket Ground is within the legally constituted Wimborne Conservation Area and is also designated as an open space in the Local Area Plan.  Development can take place within a Conservation Area but it has to be justified by the benefit that it confers.  A supermarket could be judged to enhance the economic activity of the town but it would be much more difficult to justify a housing development with this argument.  In addition, it is Government policy that:  

The (local) Development Plan … provides the essential framework for planning decisions. When conflicts between Plan policies arise, decisions should be taken in the light of all material considerations, including local priorities and needs, guided by relevant national policy’.  

It is unlikely that houses or flats on the Cricket Ground would be regarded as a 'local priority' that would justify compromising the Local Plan or the Conservation Area.  The 'SW Spatial Plan' which requires Wimborne to site many new houses and the Waitrose Application are entirely different planning problems.

HOME