The area north of Dorchester EXTRA work is needed to assess the viability of the proposed Dorchester North ’garden community’ housing scheme – according to Dorset Council. Planning portfolio holder Cllr David Walsh has also revealed that the link road between the A35 and A37 being considered for the 3,500 home scheme is not the bypass which was originally envisaged. He says that, instead, it is likely to be a link road more in keeping with a cross route through a housing estate. The question of viability was raised in a public question to this week’s Cabinet meeting where it was said that a consultant’s 2008 study, commissioned by the former district council, concluded that after a notional development period of 14 years the new housing estate would have a negative value of £174million.