PLANS for a new Eco Hub at Blandford Hill, near Winterborne Whitechurch, have been submitted to Dorset Council.

The Eco Hub would bring ultra-rapid electronic vehicle charging with a solar farm and batteries to a rural part of the county, the developers say.

Naturalis, a joint venture between renewable energy companies REG Power Management and Falck Renewables, is the organisation behind the planning application.

Development director for the project, Matt Partridge, said it was an exciting opportunity for the area.

“The Blandford Hill Eco Hub is an exciting opportunity to combine ultra-rapid electric vehicle charging with a solar farm and batteries.

“This way people can charge their electric cars using green electricity that is generated on-site, further reducing their carbon footprints.”

The site would be based on the A354 around six miles south-west of Blandford Forum and is approximately a quarter of a mile north-east of the village of Winterborne Whitechurch.

Its projects like this that were “an important step in the right direction” in “significantly driving down carbon emissions” from transport, said Mr Partridge, “vital to achieve the Government’s climate change targets”.

The UK Government has pledged to reach zero net emissions in less than thirty years and part of that plan is to ban the sale of new petrol and diesel cars in less than nine years time.

Dorset Council has previously published its local plan which reflects the climate and ecological ‘emergency’ the council declared in 2019 when it first formed.

Mr Partridge said the motivation behind the site in rural Dorset was to ensure the area was not left behind.

He said: “It will be important to ensure that rural areas are not left behind, as they were with broadband roll-out.

“The Blandford Hill Eco Hub will ensure that the growing number of electric vehicles in this part of rural Dorset, and those that pass through, will have access to modern and convenient charging facilities where, at present, a regional gap exists.”

The council is expected to make a decision later this year.