OUTLINE plans have been submitted for a new housing estate in Wellington which will impact the town’s planned railway station.

West of England Developments (WoED) wants permission to build up to 320 homes on four fields totalling 48 acres in Tonedale.

Somerset Council will be unable to refuse because it does not meet a Government requirement to have a five-year supply of housing land available, meaning applications can only be rejected if they cause significant harm demonstrably outweighing the development’s benefits.

The new estate will be off Wardleworth Way and will run up to and alongside the Paddington to Penzance railway line, tapering off at a point where the town’s new station will be built.

WoED is proposing 30 fewer properties than when it carried out public consultation at the end of last year.

Carney Sweeney planner Lucy Burton said on WoED’s behalf pedestrian and cycle links to the north side of the railway station would avoid people having to travel via the town centre to access it.

Ms Burton said: “It provides a convenient access to the proposed railway station without reliance upon car use.”

She said a pedestrian and cycle route over an existing railway bridge would also be formalised to connect through to Proctor Way, Lillebonne Way, the Pritex factory, Howard Road, and the town centre beyond.

However, Ms Burton dismissed suggestions that a northern relief road was needed to ease traffic pressures in the centre of Wellington.

She said such an idea was ‘outdated’ and ‘old hat’ and not necessary to make the development acceptable in planning terms.

Ms Burton said: “A vehicular bridge over the railway would cost £millions and would clearly make the development unviable.

“Instead, the development focusses on active travel and pedestrian and cycle connectivity improvements to the proposed new railway station and town centre.”

Ms Burton said public consultation showed concern about a lack of infrastructure in the town to cope with additional housebuilding, such as GP and dental surgeries.

She said: “The planning system cannot fund the hire of GPs and healthcare professional per se.”

However, she said NHS Somerset was asking for financial contributions from the Tonedale development to allow Wellington Medical Centre to be expanded.

Ms Burton said: “With regard to dental practices, these are in effect privately run commercial ventures and cannot be controlled by the planning system and is essentially market led.”

WoED initially proposed including a primary school but Somerset Council said there were already enough places for pupils in existing schools, although a financial contribution would be needed for Court Fields School to expand to meet extra demand.

Ms Burton said the Tonedale site had been identified in the Wellington Place Plan as appropriate for residential development as part of a station-led intensification.

WoED is expected to sell on the site once it has obtained planning permission, as it did with a 200-home development on the other side of the railway line behind the town’s Lidl supermarket, which will now be built by Bloor Homes.