PEOPLE first remains the option for the autumn Local Plan consultation for Bournemouth, Christchurch, and Poole.

The view is different from the approach taken by Dorset Council where councillors put forward their proposals – and then asked residents what they thought of them.

BCP brief holder for the plan Cllr Philip Broadhead says the local approach lets people have their say before the council tries to hone the ideas it receives down in a series of key strategies for a second round of consultation.

Wednesday’s Cabinet meeting re-affirmed that it would wait for the area’s own housing needs assessment to be completed before the autumn consultation – possibly using it as an alternative to the Government’s standard calculation method, based on 2014 figures.

Cllr Broadhead believes that local methods of calculating housing ‘need’ are more likely to produce a lower figure than the model used by the Government, which some say could result in between 33,000 and 40,000 extra homes for the area, although a strong case would have to be made for any divergence from the standard method of working out the target figure.

Describing the forthcoming consultation, as “Act one, Scene one”, he stressed the exercise was just part of the process of coming up with a Local Plan which would guide the area’s future for the next 15 years.

Although no precise details will be decided for some time Cllr Karen Rampton was quick to make a bid for a 1,000 bed-space ‘extra care’ development at Talbot Village, where land is currently suggested for employment use.

She said the new ‘village’ would help protect the area’s green space and provide much-needed homes for people who wanted additional support and to maintain their independence as they grew older.

She told the Cabinet meeting that extra care housing would soon be seen as ‘the new normal’ for people, both older citizens and people with disabilities, who wanted a range of support.

Cllr Jane Kelly supported the idea, which she said would be ‘amazing’.

“In terms of our communities we need to think about how people would like to be living in their old age,” she said.

Responding to pleas to remove the phrase ‘city region’ from the consultation document Cllr Broadhead declined to budge saying he believed it only acknowledged the reality of the conurbation and “reflected a level of ambition we can, and should, have.”