The North Dorchester Garden Community will be a sustainably designed community with new homes and jobs, set within a generous green network to create space for wildlife. The New Garden Community will enjoy the best of town and country.
Presently, the vast majority of the area under consideration for development is intensively farmed agricultural land, which is not good for the preservation of wildlife. By creating a new habitat through the Frome Valley Country Park and nature reserve, we will be significantly improving the situation for local wildlife, allowing public access, and safeguarding it in perpetuity.
Proposed pedestrian and cycle connections along green corridors across the site will provide easy access to the centre of Dorchester and the surrounding countryside. A new wildlife corridor along the Frome Valley will create new habitats and support native wildlife. Green wildlife corridors will thread through the neighbourhoods, linking the county town to the countryside.
New homes and buildings will be designed to be as energy efficient as possible, with the addition of solar panels and other energy saving measures to ensure the carbon footprint of the community is minimised and energy bills are lowered.
With transport being one of the key contributors to CO2 emissions, walking and cycling will be hardwired into the design of the North Dorchester Garden Community. Our homes will be just a few minutes from work, shops, schools and other key services. Many new walking and cycling routes into town, the new Country Park and the countryside are proposed so that no one has to drive to find rest and relaxation.
Central to the North Dorchester Garden Community proposals is correcting the current imbalance between homes and jobs. Currently, many people have to travel in and out of Dorchester to travel to work. By correcting this imbalance – and providing opportunities for people to live near where they work – the impact on the local road network will be reduced. This will lead to residents being able to live more sustainable and healthy lives, travelling less and walking and cycling more.
Additional bus routes and services will be central to the proposals as well, encouraging sustainable travel.
As part of our plans, we’re proposing a new link road between the A37 and the A35 to the north of the town, which will help relieve traffic not only on the southern by- pass but also on the High Street.