DORSET will be at the forefront of radical planning change, a meeting will be told next week.

The Dorset branch of the Country Land and Business Association (CLA) will meet to discus how the government’s Localism Bill will impact on the area.

Although the full implications have yet to be worked through, changes in planning processes will require a greater engagement by landowners if they are to influence the policies that will affect their ability to run their business, says the group’s outgoing chairman Rupert Best.

In his report to the branch’s annual general meeting Mr Best says the county will be at the forefront of change, as the new planning procedures are to be piloted in West Dorset.

He will call on CLA members to stand for election to local councils.

Mr Best will say: “We will be monitoring developments very closely – but our message to our members is that if they want to safeguard future growth and development in rural Dorset, then they should be prepared to step up and get involved.”

Mr Best will tell members that one of the clear concerns for landowners within the Localism Bill was the proposal on Community Assets.

He said: “This is a threat to the interests of landowners because it means that if an area of land or a building is deemed to be of value to the community, it will be put on a list and may not be disposed of until the community has had sufficient time to raise the funds to bid for it.

“This means that the owner may lose the opportunity to sell his property at a time of his choosing and, potentially, to the person of his choosing.

“It would create a wholly unreasonable interference with an individual’s property rights and we are fundamentally opposed to it.”

On a local level, Mr Best said that work was still going on to provide high speed broadband.

He said it was absurd that remote corners of the world were better served for mobile phone coverage than Dorset market towns but progress with extending mobile telephone coverage was far from assured.

The key note speakers at the CLA Dorset branch AGM next Friday will be West Dorset MP Oliver Letwin and the CLA National President William Worsley.