Buyers who trusted glossy masterplans now face unmet promises and unfinished landscaping as enforcement struggles to keep pace
Across the Blackmore Vale, residents who believed the promises of glossy brochures and landscaped masterplans are now living beside rubble mounds, unfinished play areas and absent infrastructure.
Dorset Council currently has ten open enforcement cases relating to alleged breaches of planning conditions on developments of more than 25 homes.
Housing estates are being constructed at an ever-increasing pace – but are they being completed to an acceptable standard, with all the planning conditions met?
Templecombe
Knights Meadow, a 73-home development in Templecombe, came with promises of a children’s playing field connecting to the school, a burial ground, landscaping and designated play equipment. Traffic calming and a 20mph limit were also anticipated. The site was attractive to prospective buyers, especially as it is within walking distance of a train station. Although all the houses have sold and social homes have been allocated, some aspects are still incomplete.
Walking through the estate, it quickly becomes clear that areas of landscaping need improvement, and the 20mph speed limit has not been introduced. Tara Williams moved to Templecombe from West Sussex 18 months ago: ‘When I moved in there were bits that needed to be done in the house, and to be fair, Tilia Homes were excellent and got all that sorted. Then what I call “the mountain” appeared – soil was brought in to shape the open area.
But we now have this play area for children that is on a level with our first floor bedrooms! And they put tactile paving in for people with low vision … and then stuck a manhole cover in the middle of the tactile bit.’
Councillor Sarah Webb from Templecombe Parish Council is frustrated at the lack of progress on a school playing field, and that the estate play area is on the lip of a steep attenuation pond (which, despite all the recent rain, remains empty).
‘One of the first problems here was the amount of additional soil they were generating,’ Sarah says. ‘This mound is entirely the wrong shape, and as a result of that, the play area is in the wrong place. We were also supposed to have brick-based driveways which help with drainage – important with climate change. We only got two. They have simply tarmacked over the majority of the drives.
‘Everything should have been finished within three months of the last house being occupied, which was September last year – if I’m being generous. There is still a significant amount of work outstanding.
‘One of the other major issues is that what they have dumped has now grassed over – but it’s a rocky surface underneath. It’s going to be impossible to maintain. As soon as you put anything mechanical on that it will break. You can’t mow it. And that’s what it’s like everywhere.
The school field was meant to be a level area for the kids to play football. But it sloped, so all that has had to be re-levelled.’
We walk through the housing estate, looking at a fenced-off unfinished footpath – meant to be a link to the village hall, avoiding traffic on the A357. An ‘orchard’ remains treeless.
‘I didn’t really favour this application, but it got approval and these people now live in our village. They bought houses here and they deserve better.
‘From the planning point of view, if you are going to have construction in a village it needs to be of high quality. If you are going to enforce more development, it also needs to be of a quality fit for the residents. And there needs to be comeback if it is not. It’s just not good enough.
‘We hear about people “not wanting development” but actually we now need to say,
“we don’t want the development but if you do develop it, keep your promises”.’
A spokesperson for Tilia Homes said: ‘Work on the public open space, school playing field, burial ground and children’s play area is progressing well and is expected to be completed in early summer, subject to weather conditions. The play area will be independently inspected before opening, and landscaping is being finalised during the current planting season.’
The spokesperson added that the attenuation pond is a planned feature of the development and will include appropriate safety measures before the surrounding open space is opened to the public.
Shaftesbury
It’s a similar picture in Shaftesbury on the Blackmore Down development. For many residents, the promised landscaping was a major factor in their purchase, and the town council was attracted by the prospect of new public views of the Blackmore Vale that could be enjoyed by all. Shaftesbury Town Council chairman Virginia Edwin Jones is annoyed: ‘Half of Blackmore Down is within a National Landscape – Cranborne Chase wraps itself around Shaftesbury. It was designed specifically to create a beautiful open space with a new view over the Blackmore Vale – a view that was never available to the public before because it was previously private farmland.
‘So the plans show this beautiful landscaping scheme, and that’s what everybody bought into. The people whose houses sit next to the open space paid tens of thousands more to be able to live right next door to it. Yet the landscaping scheme has not been fulfilled at all.
‘The planting wasn’t done. They’ve been chased up and then they got builders, not landscape architects or landscape contractors, to basically shove in loads of saplings. They took away all the virgin soil – which would have been perfect topsoil – and instead dumped a waste-filled mix of earth, rubble and construction debris. What they put back is much higher than it should be – the ground level is mounded. The residents filmed them doing it.
‘You could just weep for the residents who have been looking at … well, it’s a load of crap, let’s be honest … when they have paid tens of thousands of pounds more than their estate neighbours in order to have something beautiful to look at.’
Walking around Blackmore Down I soon see there are food waste bins which have been commandeered as dog bins as none have been installed. There is evidence of dying saplings and weeds throughout the site, with deep banks of old dock plants rather than the promised landscaping.The attenuation pond looms high on the mounded open space – and once again, during one of the wettest winters on record, is mysteriously devoid of water.
A spokesperson from Barratt Redrow Southern Counties said: ‘Landscaping works are scheduled to begin this summer, with all outstanding tree planting to follow in the autumn. We are currently reviewing the ground levels, and if any adjustments are required to address level differences, these works will be carried out at a time that minimises disruption for residents.’
Residents say they will be watching closely to see whether the promised works are delivered.
What can be done?
Dorset Council was asked about the scope of the problem with large developments not meeting planning conditions in the county. A spokesperson said:
‘The council currently has ten open planning enforcement cases, relating to alleged breaches of condition, on developments of over 25 homes. As with all planning enforcement cases, alleged breaches of condition are investigated in line with the council’s Local Enforcement Plan. There is a current open enforcement case in relation to the Blackmore Down development, at Littledown, Shaftesbury. In this case, a planning application has been submitted with the aim of resolving matters, but further information is needed from the applicant before the application can be validated.’
The council has given the applicant until the end of March 2026 – just weeks away – to provide the additional information required.
‘The council does not comment on ongoing enforcement matters,’ the spokesperson continued. ‘But it remains committed to progressing all cases in line with our Local Enforcement Plan.’
As Dorset faces continued pressure for new housing, and development accelerates across the country, residents and town and parish councils are increasingly asking a simple question: if developments are approved with conditions, who ensures those conditions are met? The widening gap between approved plans and delivered reality is testing confidence in the planning system.
Landscaping, play areas, drainage and public open space are not cosmetic extras but core parts of approved schemes. Planning conditions are designed to ensure infrastructure, landscaping and public amenities are delivered alongside new homes. Where those conditions are not met, enforcement can be slow and complex – leaving our communities living with the consequences.
