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Sandbanks residents vote to ban overdevelopment on exclusive peninsula

Paul de Cordova, chairman of the Sandbanks Neighbourhood Forum, the body that came up with the plan, said before the vote: “I believe that Sandbanks is suffering from a rash of poorly considered development which has severely impacted the character of Sandbanks.

“Land plots are subject to overdevelopment with new properties and extensions which lack imagination and pay little regard to their impact on neighbouring properties, particularly in terms of mass, height and proximity to boundaries.”

A couple who have lived on Sandbanks for 25 years said they voted in favour of the plan.

They said: “We’ve just seen too much change here. We’re all for building and change where necessary but we need to protect what we have left.”

‘It’s driven by selfishness’

But one local property developer warned that adopting the plan could result in house prices to fall.

Richard Carr, the chief executive of property developers Fortitudo, said those supporting the plan have not thought through the impact it could have on the value of their own homes in the future.

Mr Carr said: “All those people that live there are basically saying ‘we have got our house but we don’t want anyone else’. It’s driven by selfishness.

“It’s a completely anti-development document. It’s a very negative document. I don’t think most people realise what they have voted for.

“People who have got a single house on a large plot may have sold it before and two or three homes could be built there. Now they have lost that opportunity and have devalued their properties as a result.”

He said that adopting the plan will put Sandbanks at odds with the new Labour government’s policy on housebuilding for the country.

Mr Carr said: “Labour have identified Nimbyism as a major hurdle in the UK for not building enough new homes so it will be interesting to see what happens here.”