BOMBSHELL plans for new housing development to extend urban Wellington across the town’s relief road and into the countryside beneath Wellington Monument have been revealed.

Developer Pegasus Group Ltd was holding secret talks about its plans with the former Somerset West and Taunton Council (SWT) before the authority was dissolved at the end of March.

Pegasus says it has also been in contact with Wellington Without Parish Council, in whose area the proposed site lies.

Now, the Bristol-based company also wants to discuss its ideas with Wellington Town Council.

Pegasus wants to build up to 250 homes in fields to the south of Wellington Relief Road, on the other side of the A38 from the Burrough Way and Barn Meads Road developments.

In 2021, land speculator Gladman Developments Ltd proposed building on about 30 acres around Middle Green when SWT made a ‘call for sites’ as part of preparing a new local plan to guide future development from the expiry of the current plan in 2028 up to 2040.

If approved by the new Somerset Council, the Pegasus housing estate would be 25 per cent larger than the 205 homes being built in Exeter Road, Rockwell Green, where Gladman gained planning permission on appeal in 2018.

The proposed new housing would wrap around Middle Green Farm and stretch from Middle Green Road, opposite Oaktree Court care home, almost as far as Webbers Grave and Stallards.

Pegasus principal planner Jonathan Coombs approached town council in April.

Mr Coombs described the plans ‘emerging proposals’ which he said were ‘formed around up to 250 homes’.

He said the company was interested in discussing its proposals with both Wellington and Wellington Without parish councillors ‘as part of community engagement’.

Community engagement is required by local authorities when major development proposals are put forward to give an indication of whether there was local support or opposition to a plan.

The 2021 proposal by Gladman was subsequently withdrawn after local opposition to the idea of development breaching Wellington’s A38 relief road boundary for the first time.

But SWT later dropped preparation of its local development plan when it became clear a new unitary council for the whole of Somerset would be formed this year, opting to leave the new authority to prepare the document instead, a process which could take another five years.

The decision left the whole of Taunton Deane in ‘development limbo’ with developers talking about a ‘planning policy vacuum’ in which almost anything might be allowed because of the absence of legal guidelines.

The unitary council has now created an ‘area based’ committee system which will essentially leave the former Somerset West and Taunton district under the same planning management.

The Pegasus proposal would be seen as a first step to opening up the whole length of the relief road for house building, with the area around the currently closed Moonbeams farm shop further to the east and across the road from the Jurston Fields estate also suggested as a housing site.

Discussions around a future local plan for Wellington had previously centred on potential housing sites in Rockwell Green, stretching behind the Dobree Park estate from Exeter Road across to Westford.