Page 24 - br-june-2021

June 2021

Four Council owned sites disposed of so far – realising
£4.6million

The four sites were sold by the end of this financial year in March with another
eight or nine in preparation for sale. The four have been named as the former
Mountjoy School site, Bridport; the former Norden council offices at Blandford; St
Martin’s at Gillingham and Roman Road, Weymouth. All are expected to be
developed for housing. The council has also vacated several sites, although in
some cases they were leased, rather than owned, further cutting costs. These
include Furzehill, the former East Dorset District Council headquarters near
Wimborne and Princes House in Dorchester. Two key south Dorset sites are still
awaiting a decision – the former Weymouth and Portland HQ at North Quay and
South Walks House in Dorchester which the council has said it will not be returning
to.

The Council owns 600 sites of which 24 are currently occupied offices. It was
always planned to reduce the number of sites as a result of the merger of the
councils into one. There will be further savings and rationalization because of
changing working practices accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Grid Power

Grid Power to parts of Dorset, already difficult
in some areas, could get worse in the future
as electric networks come under greater
pressure. At a recent meeting Dorset
councillors were told that some of the
county’s industrial estates are already at
c a p a c i t y . C o u n c i l l o r s a g r e e d
that suppliers will be asked to attend a future
meeting to explain their strategy, current
capacity problems and how they hope to
overcome problem in some areas.
The committee heard that the electricity
networks had not responded to the recent
consultation on the revised Dorset Plan,
although the meeting was told that whatever
developments are proposed the network
providers would be legally obliged to
provide for it. There is the potential, across
the county, for growth to be held back in
some areas by the lack of an adequate energy supply.

Problem areas for supply are across the Dorset Council area but include, locally,
Dorset Innovation Park and Holton Heath Trading Park.

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