Is Wareham a well-connected station under the new NPPF?

The frequency limb

Annex B asks for at least 4 trains an hour overall, or 2 an hour in any one direction, throughout the weekday daytime. Wareham averages about 4.1 an hour; its quietest daytime hour sees 4.

The travel to work area limb

Wareham sits in the Poole travel to work area, ranked 68 of the top 80 in England by economic output, at about £6.8bn of gross value added a year (ONS 2023). The Framework fixes the 2023 rankings until the day after the 2028 figures are published, so this half of the test will not move before then.

Wareham is about 492 metres from the Dorset National Landscape. Protected landscape policy N4 applies there regardless of the station, so land in that direction carries both sets of rules.

What passing unlocks within 800 metres

• Policy L3(2)(c): residential schemes must reach at least 35 homes per hectare of net developable area, and L3(4) directs refusal for schemes that fall short. How the density rule works
• Policy S5(1)(h): outside a settlement boundary, land within walking distance that is physically well-related to Wareham or its settlement has a route to housing permission in its own right. The routes outside settlements
• Policies GB7(1)(h) and GB2(4): in the Green Belt, housing near the station can be not inappropriate development, and plans can release land here without exceptional circumstances. How Green Belt policy changed