Last chance of Calm before the storm… (From Bournemouth Echo)

Last chance of Calm before the storm…

7:05pm Monday 6th October 2008

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VILLAGERS in Lytchett Matravers met for the final time as the deadline to object to plans for 2,750 new homes nearby looms.

Members of Community Action Lytchett Matravers (Calm) met at the village hall on Saturday ahead of the October 17 deadline.

The meeting came as the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) warned that government house-building targets are out of reach as the economic crisis continues.

About 150 people heard from a series of speakers at the meeting, including Annette Brooke MP, Terry Stewart from the Campaign to Protect Rural England and Margaret Cheetham, senior planning officer at Purbeck District Council.

Gill Bobin, from Calm, said: "We were updated on the response to the proposed changes and everybody has been encouraged to send individual letters to the Government Office for the South West.

"The main thing was that people need to write."

Members of Calm will be joining a demonstration in Westminster on Thursday.

If the controversial government plans are approved, more than 5,000 new homes will be built in Purbeck, with 2,750 of those earmarked for a large tract of land near Lytchett Matravers and Lytchett Minster, known as the Western Extension.

But yesterday statistics from Rics said that 200,000 properties had to be built across the country each year if the government was to meet its aim of two million new homes by 2012.

With only 66,220 built so far this year, that looked unlikely, it said.

Rics senior economist Oliver Gilmartin said: "At current levels of production the number of new homes built will fall below 100,000 in the coming year. The outlook for the construction industry is extremely bleak with the previously strong infrastructure sector now unlikely to step in as the downturn in property markets resonates." The government is proposing 48,000 new homes for Dorset by 2026.

Minister Hazel Blears will make the decision on final numbers following the consultation.

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