The Crown Estate Proposed Housing Development In Blandford ...&... Gone With The Wind...

A man kindly let me take this photo of  this Blandford  Crown Meadow land from his garden

Hello reader, it's a lovely January afternoon as I blog todays article, I hope you are having a good day - winter is already on the wane, so enjoy this time of year, we're so lucky in the UK to enjoy 4 seasons and those of us who live in Blandford Forum have another string of luck to add to our good fortune bow, which is we have the best of both town and countryside, one minute you can be in Blandford town centre and the next you can be taking a stroll in Bryanston Wood or the Crown Meadows...

Talking about the Crown Meadows, there's a rather heated debate going on at the moment among some members of the public who live in Blandford and particularly those who live near the Crown Estate land - west Blandford, concerning the proposed new housing development - The Blandford Buzz will try to address this topic in a balanced and impartial way because it is clear that both sides of the argument are equally valid...

Bryanston Park Preservation Group

A few days ago, I had a conversation with a spokesman for the Bryanston Park Preservation Group who is very passionately forthrightly against the proposed Crown Estate housing development, his main concern and that of the BPPG is understandable - namely the preservation of the Crown Meadows land itself in order to protect the wildlife and natural habitats etc.

For the love of the land

Another view of the Crown Meadows

It's an honorable aspect of someones character to feel a love for the land and those of us who are lucky enough to have regular views and access to natural beauty spots are far more inclined to strongly oppose anything that may pose a threat to that very nature which surrounds us -


I spent my early and teenage years in Fiddleford near Broad Oak and Sturminster Newton and whenever I go back there to wander the green and pleasant land, even now I feel a strong affinity and love for and of that particular part of the countryside and I'm sure I would feel just as impassioned as the BPPG, if a housing developer proposed to build houses on any of the land that occupies the beautiful and treasured memories of my earlier years.


Gone With The Wind


In fact the way I feel when ever I return to Fiddleford, Broad Oak and the Sturminster Newton Area, reminds me of the book and film Gone With The Wind, the novel an epic maser piece, written by Margaret Mitchell was first published in 1936 and made into a motion picture in 1939. The book begins in the 1860s and a cotton plantation called Tara in Georgia in the USA is one of the key settings for the novel and the O'Hara's love for Tara is a recurrent theme in the story - particularly at the beginning of the book and film Gerald O'Hara talks of his deep love of the land round about him and he tries to instill this sentiment in his daughter Scarlett, however in the beginning she does not feel a strong attachment to the same land though later in the book Margaret Mitchell writes that Scarlett O'Hara felt a sense of comfort when she returned to Tara because although every thing else in her life had changed, Tara still remained the same. In fact I've decided to embed a clip about the love of the land from this epic movie staring the eternally beautiful Vivien Leigh who plays Scarlett with her father Gerald O'Hara just below...

The Crown Estates 

The Crown Meadows or Bryanston Deer Park is owned by the Crown Estates, today like many others in Blandford, I received the consultation newsletter from the CE. First of all being a keen blogger that needs my image fix, I looked at the photographic indicative masterplans (or in more understandable terms an aerial view photograph with the proposed new housing plans "superimposed" onto it). After viewing the said photo plans, in my opinion, obviously judging from an aerial perspective, the proposed housing development doesn't seem that bad to me, though I'm aware that being on the ground and actually having a true sense of perspective, as opposed to simply looking at a 2d aerial plan, may alter my initial perception.

Positive versus negative

After reading the Crown Estate newsletter, I think the problem that I and most of us face when deciding if a proposed housing development will enhance the locality or instead be a detrimental blight, is the fact that on the one hand it's obvious that new affordable housing is needed - and if each time a new property was to be built, everyone objected and thwarted such plans, then quite frankly there would be no new housing, you would have to rent a cave or a box and homelessness is no joke and in housing terms must be treated in priority and with the utmost urgency, for men, yes single men and all other men as well - not just young girls and women (I've just given myself an idea for a blog article sometime - homelessness in Blandford). On the other hand because much of the available land to build upon tends to be green belt it will always mean areas of outstanding natural beauty will be reduced in size.

Flood risk ?

The River Stour In Blandford

The possibility of flooding always springs to my mind when ever a housing development is proposed quite near a river and even though the CE newsletter states that "part of the meadow floods, however, modelling demonstrates that the area of land proposed for development is outside the flood risk area and would be acceptable to the Environment Agency" not being entirely convinced I immediately phoned the Crown Estate - in response to my query as to whether the proposed site for development at the Crown Meadows could be at risk of flooding, a spokesman for the CE explained to me that the Environment Agency have extensive flood plans and that the Crown Meadows / Bryanston Park has been catorgorised as being flood zone 1, which means the risk of flooding is less than 1 in 1000 years - and I shall add to this from the Alnwick District Council website, that percentage wise there is 0.1% chance of flooding from either river sources or the sea, though as impressive as the statistical probabilities may be, I must be honest and say that I'm still not entirely convinced.

Sustainability = viability

The spokesman for the CE also told me that the Crown Meadow land is one of the most sustainable sites in Blandford Forum, due to it's close proximity to local amenities and because the Crown Meadow area is quite central, traffic wise it shouldn't impact on the town negatively and this is why North Dorset District Council is keenly interested in this west Blandford location for the new local plan...


North Dorset District Council The New Local Plan

North Dorset District Council Offices

Basically in between phrases such as core planning strategy, development management policies, implementation strategy, district core strategy, core strategy policy and blah blah blah...a planning policy officer at NDDC (she corrected me when I referred to her as a spokeswoman, she probably loves her Jay Oh Bee ((JOB)) bless her) explained to me that the new local plan - in lay persons terms the just mentioned new local plan was a lot easier for me to quickly scribble down, than it's official (seemingly ridiculous gobbledygook) title which even the planning policy officer laughed about in a slightly embarrassed tone !

Forward planning up to 2026...

NDDC allowed The Blandford Buzz
under strict supervision to photograph
what is called in short form the New Local Plan

Back to the new local plan -  NDDC must identify expected growth, in the areas of employment and housing etc up until at least the year 2026, they have to forecast this expected growth outlook (my term not theirs) so that they can put adequate measures in place to accommodate such anticipated increase. I asked the planning policy officer if the proposed development by the Crown Estate at the Crown Meadows goes ahead, when would it happen and she told me that it will take quite a few years yet - due to further formal (blah blah blah -obviously my words not hers) processes that proceed any new development...

Have your say & find out more- 
The Crown Estates will be holding a public exhibition at Blandford Corn Exchange 
in just over a weeks time on Friday 20th January Midday-21.00hrs & Saturday 21st January 9am-14.00hrs 

I will try and take some pics in the next few days of the proposed site at the Crown Meadows and publish them on this article, a blog always needs photos and it will be good to have lots of images of the said area, whilst it is in its present form, in fact I was quite surprised that there doesn't seem to many pics of the Blandford Crown Meads on the search engines images...x