Thousands of people who wrote in opposition to the 4,000-home Norchester development may have wasted their time.
A 8,400-home ‘garden town’ planned for Sittingbourne in Kent, similar to that planned to the north of Dorchester, was set to be refused by councillors on Swale Borough Council, but Secretary of State Angela Rayner snatched the decision from local planners at the 11th hour.
Just three hours before a meeting where councillors were due to vote on the proposal, they received a letter telling them Ms Rayner was taking over.
The news comes after Rayner’s department approved hated plans for an enormous waste incinerator on Portland, pulling the rug from under countless campaigners who believed they had managed to stop it being built.

Swale Council had received more than 700 objections to the plans for the garden town. There have been thousands of objections to Norchester. But it is unknown if Rayner’s department will take any notice of these – no notice was taken of residents’ objections in the case of the incinerator, when a junior minister seemed to only look at the paperwork rather than consider the wider issues raised by local people.
Labour has promised to deliver 1.5million new homes over the next five years, and set high targets for new homes which local councils must allow.
Concerns over Norchester include the development being built on water meadows, and that the homes would affect an important borehole, which could then affect the water supply for Dorchester. The land is considered important too, as the area is central Hardy country.
But Rayner says there’s plenty of countryside left: “The vast majority of England is still very green and will remain so.”