As land for playing fields, Hanham's Ground was probably worth around £600 thousand at today's prices, whereas as building land having planning permission, its value shot up by a factor of ten. The decision by the Planning Committee on the 29th September was therefore worth millions to the vendors. As an architect colleague of mine keeps saying, "Getting planning permission is still the easiest way of making money!"

Listen to the discussions and the voting, but bear in mind that 5 or 6 million pounds rests on the outcome: (56 minutes)

Several opinion serveys were carried out over the period 2004 to 2008, with results as follows:

• The local Lib Dems circulated a questionnaire. Of the 700 responses, 78% were opposed to the supermarket.
• The local Conservatives issued a questionnaire. Of the 727 responses, 69.8% disagreed that a Waitrose supermarket would benefit the town.
• Wimborne Town Council surveyed local households and of the 365 responses, 73% opposed building a supermarket on the cricket ground.
• The Community Magazine polled its readers and of the 4978 responses, 66% were opposed to the Waitrose proposal.
• Councillor Richard Booth posed the question on his Blog, and 53% opposed a Waitrose on the cricket ground.

During the meeting held on 29 September 2008, the Chief Planning Officer spoke at length and in detail, and to his credit he strongly recommended refusing the Waitrose application.

Despite all of this, which of our elected representatives voted for and against the Waitrose Supermarket planning application? Eight voted in favour and only two against. Interestingly, voting was along party lines as all those in favour are Conservatives whilst those against are Liberal Democrats. Both parties carried out opinion surveys so clearly the Conservatives ignored the wishes of the electorate, whilst the Liberal Democrats took heed! Talk about "Turkeys Voting for Christmas"!

With local elections coming up soon, this will be your opportunity to exert your democratic mandate. Election time seems to be the only time when most councillors take any serious notice of the wishes of their electorate.

If you believe we have made any factual errors above, please contact us anonymously, using the form below.

East Dorset District Council's Planning Committee vote on planning application for a new Waitrose store for Wimborne. Watch the YouTube video below. We note with interest that EDDC have disabled any comments from being posted on YouTube. They clearly do not want to see any dissenting points of view