IF you want new housing you won't get it - but if you don't want it, you will have housing thrust upon you.

That seems to be the message coming from government, it is claimed.

A Dorset market town which desperately needs housing is set to lose 700 new homes it was banking on.

And the news comes just 16 days after communities in other parts of the county - who don't want development - learned they could face large-scale building in the green belt.

Two outline planning applications for major schemes in Shaftesbury have been "called in" by the Government Office for the South West.

Leaders fear the homes - including 180 desperately-needed affordable homes - will be lost.

Dorset County Council leader Tim Palmer said the structural plan had been replaced by the Regional Spatial Strategy (RSS). "We're getting up in arms about it," he said.

"The government is seeking to impose its own will through the RSS.

"It wants to see large-scale building concentrated in urban areas in Bournemouth, Poole and the green belt in places like Wimborne and Corfe Mullen.

"But the rural areas - particularly the market towns - will not get the housing they desperately need and which is vital to the future of their economy.

"This is potentially disastrous for the long-term wellbeing of communities in both rural Dorset and indeed those living in Bournemouth, Poole and the green belt."

North Dorset planning portfolio holder Cllr Peter Webb deplored the likely loss of housing in Shaftesbury.

"I am shocked and dismayed at the decision to take these applications to public inquiry," he said.

Town mayor Cllr Janet Lowe said: "I'm disappointed. We need the houses. Without them we don't get the growth."

First published: October 13