DORCHESTER North developers are to be told that if the 3,750 home development does go ahead they will have to set aside land for a new household recycling centre for the area.

A site for a replacement tip for Dorchester's outdated and over-crowded Louds Mill tip had been identified a decade ago at Stinsford Hill, now part of the Dorchester North Consortium site.

Cllr Stella Jones told town councillors on Monday evening that should the massive and contoversial housing development go ahead land for a tip site would be expected.

Speaking after the meeting she said she, and the town council, remain committed to opposing Dorchester North.

"We still object to the development at Dorchester North but if it is to happen then the site earmarked on the Waste and Minerals Plan should be clearly marked," she said.

The town council is now to remind Dorset Council of its pledge to replace the Dorchester household recycling centre, and of their identification of the Stinsford Hill site, to the east of the county town just off the main road, as the best alternative.

The current Louds Mill tip site, on a road which is potted and often floods, has long been a bone of contention in the county town, including over heavy goods lorries driving up and down Lubbecke Way, a residential area, to get to and from the site, as well as hundreds of tip visitors in cars and vans each week.

Cllr Jones says that no attention was ever paid to the need to expand rubbish disposal and recycling facilities in Dorchester when the Poundbury development and Fordington Fields were agreed by previous councils – but should have been.

She says the need is now more pressing with the Louds Mill tip site likely be needed for an expansion of the town's adjacent sewage treatment works.

Cllr Jones was also scathing about claims from the Dorchester North developers that they would set aside an area of land several time the size of The Great Field at Poundbury for wildlife.

"What they are talking about is the water meadows and they can't build there, anyway," she told the town council planning and environment meeting on Monday evening.

The meeting also heard criticism from member of the public, Sharon Morgan, of the timing of the Dorchester North planned consultation events (on August 20th, 28th and September 2nd.)

She questioned whether the timing was a deliberate ploy by the developers when many people would be away on holiday, or getting children ready for the next school term.

She told councillors that she also worried about the consortium's publication of their environmental scoping report for the site, at the start of the school holidays, and hoped than public views on the 120-plus page document would be taken into account by Dorset Council in its response, which the developers say they expect by August 28th.