A NEW development blueprint setting out how Poole council will meet its target of building more than 14,000 new homes over the next 15 years has been adopted.

Following a heated debated, councillors agreed on Tuesday, November 13 to bring the strategy into the authority’s planning policy, saying that refusing to do so opened up the borough to a developer “free-for all”.

Dozens of members of the public turned up early to the council meeting to protest the move, particularly opposing the allocation of green belt land in Merley and Bearwood for a minimum of 500 and 800 homes respectively.

The local plan outlines how the council intends to meet its target of building 14,200 new homes in the borough in the next 15 years and promises to lay the foundations for the creation of 9,000 new jobs as well as providing a £332 million-a-year boost to the economy by 2033.

While most of the homes would be built in the town centre, two ‘strategic urban extensions’ north of Merley and Bearwood are allocated in the strategy for residential development.

These elements attracted criticism from residents who urged the council to prioritise development of brown field sites over the use of green belt land.

At the meeting, Liberal Democrat councillor Vikki Slade proposed the two sites be removed from the local plan, despite a warning that it would be unable to adopt the strategy as a result.

Cllr Slade said: “There are so many holes in this local plan that failing to adopt it would not necessarily be a bad thing.

“We have only one opportunity to save this green belt land.

“If we send the message that we are prepared to give it up, what kind of message are we sending?”

Despite the backing of 12 other councillors, the amendment was defeated with the council agreeing to formally adopt the full draft plan.

Conservative councillors said that it would have left the council without a recognised planning strategy which would subsequently have “opened up” the borough to developers.

The council’s cabinet member for planning, Cllr Ian Potter, said: “This has been through due process and approved unanimously by the place overview and scrutiny committee.

“There are a huge range of benefits to the people of Poole by not supporting this plan we would be telling people that we are not open for business.”

The local plan was formally adopted with 22 councillors voting in favour of the move with 15 opposing the decision.

Speaking after the meeting, Cllr Slade said that ‘no plan is better than a bad one’.

“The arguments made about the impact of the local plan on green belt were well-made and fair but some of the responses by the portfolio holder [Cllr Potter] were disrespectful and disingenuous,” she said.

“The Poole local plan is an important document but, paraphrasing from another topic: ‘no local plan is better than a bad local plan’ and areas including the inclusion of green belt, inadequate sustainable transport policies and inaccurate data means that it should have been voted down.”