PLANS for up to 3,750 homes north of Dorchester are moving forward – with the submission of an environmental impact assessment.

Dorset Council is expected to reply to the lengthy document with its opinion by 25 August.

The developers behind the controversial project have submitted proposals which could see 850 homes in the first phase along with employment and entertainment uses and a school.

They anticipate starting work on the first phase in 2028, to be completed by 2034, with the whole site built out by 2048.

Opponents of the scheme, which include Dorchester Town Council, the STAND group and Thomas Hardy Society, have claimed there is no need for the homes and to develop 950 acres of land from Charminster weirs to Stinsford roundabout would ruin the open countryside around the county town.

Doubts have also been raised about building on meadowland which floods and the impact on the environment by creating new roads.

Part of the site in Dorchester North.

A report from the developers to Dorset Council asks for its opinion on the environmental impacts of two outline applications – the main outline for up to 3,750 homes and the first phase of 850.

The Environmental Impact Scoping Report has been prepared by Bidwells LLP on behalf of Grainger Plc and Wyatt Homes.

The submitted report sets out the history of the site and acknowledges the opposition there has been to it, but says that apart from Crossways, no other sites have been identified for the expansion of the county town.

It says that most of the land is Grade 3 farmland, a good to modest classification, with a strip of Grade 4 poor land, running east-west along the southern boundary which coincides with the River Frome and its floodplain.

This map shows the land held by the developers.

The report to Dorset Council dealing with the environment says: "The majority of the site comprises habitats of relatively lower intrinsic value such as cropland and modified grassland with features such as parkland, woodland, hedgerows, floodplain wetland mosaic, ponds, the watercourses (including the River Frome) and mature trees being the features of importance within the site."

It says ecological surveys have identified foraging and commuting bats, hazel dormouse, otter and water vole, slow-worm, grass snake and a range of breeding and wintering birds with the floodplain supporting a range of waders and wildfowl. A number of badger setts have also been identified across the site.

The developers say their outline plans include up to ten hectares of dedicated employment zones, flexible retail/entertainment uses within employment zones, neighbourhood centres and/or local centres, and an education campus of up to 14 hectares.

The Phase 1 Outline application will comprise up to 850 residential dwellings, up to five hectares of dedicated employment zones, flexible retail/entertainment uses within employment zones, neighbourhood centres and/or local centres, and an education campus of up to five hectares with a new road link between the A35 at Stinsford Hill to the A37.

A series of new road junctions will provide access to the proposed development from the B3143 Slyer's Lane, as well as a new junction from Westleaze.

The full report can be found on the Dorset Council website using the reference P/ESP/2025/04277