COUNCILLORS reacted angrily to proposed plans to build four large houses in a hamlet on the outskirts of Wellington.

Applicants Simon and Zoe Raw have asked Somerset West and Taunton Council for planning permission to demolish an agricultural barn at Henley Farm in Harpford Lane, Payton, and replace it with the four homes which would each have at least four bedrooms.

But residents in the tiny hamlet are not happy and are worried about the implications the proposed development would have on their surroundings – extra traffic, more noise, light pollution and a detrimental environmental impact to name just a few, writes WWN reporter Steve Sowden.

There is already planning permission for the disused barn in question to be converted into four homes – which was granted when the applicants gained Q Class Permitted Development Rights.

A number of opponents to the proposal attended Wellington Town Council’s planning committee meeting on February 6.

Cllr Keith Wheatley said: “I have looked in some detail and very closely to this application and the proposed houses. They are really big houses and four together is a big mass development.”

He said that he was not happy about the planning history to the site and accused the applicants of trying to “drive a coach and horses through the planning system.”

Cllr Wheatley said they had previously talked about having dog kennels and an indoor horse menage at the site, plus glamping facilities and quipped that they had probably applied for an “Olympic-sized swimming pool” as well.

“They were looking at doing that, but withdrew the plans and then came up with a Class Q planning policy which nobody had ever heard of – although it was stretching the imagination that they were going to turn an open-sided barn into homes,” he said.

“Now they want to demolish the barn altogether and build four big houses – it really does stink.”

Cllr Wheatley continued: “It would be like me buying a bit of land out there in a field and then trying to build four big houses on it. I would be horrified if this goes through.”

Cllr Andrew Govier said the applicants had found a “chink in the planning armour” and “as Cllr Wheatley said they are trying to drive a coach and horses through it.”

“These will be huge executive houses and these proposed properties would be totally out of keeping with the area,” added Cllr Govier.

Cllr Nancy Powell-Brace said that it was important to let people know the strength of feeling among the council in its opposition to the plans.

She spoke of her concerns about what would happen in the event of an emergency and whether ambulances or fire engines would be able to get to the scene.

“If this development went ahead the thought of an accident or an emergency in a block of four large houses in one of the most rural lanes we have is horrific,” she said. “If you triple the population of Payton – you are tripling the danger.”

Councillors recommended that the application be refused, but a final decision rests with the Somerset West and Taunton Council.

A spokesman for the applicants’ agents, ARA Architecture, said in a design and access statement: “We believe the scheme offers a sensitively designed, contemporary scheme that reflects the scale and setting of the area in which it is proposed.

“The dwellings are finished in a range of materials which have been chosen for the recessive character to strengthen the link with the agricultural setting.

“The form of the buildings are kept simple to reflect the pragmatic agricultural building styles of the countryside.”