A NEW scheme to build four four-bedroom houses on a village nursery site near Wellington has been put forward.

Plans for the development on the former Heathfield Plant Nursery, in Oake, were approved in March.

Now, Mr and Mrs Richard Pinkerton-Hiron have asked for an updated design and layout of the new detached houses to be approved instead.

Planning agent Andy Malam said the revised plan would ‘achieve houses of good design with a better understanding of the wider landscape impacts’.

Mr Malam said the previous design would have created ‘a faux agricultural farmyard arrangement with surrounding orchard’.

However, the site had never been a farmyard or had farm buildings on it, nor had it ever had an orchard.

Mr Malam said: “Trying to create such an appearance is a form of pastiche design which goes against good design practice.

“The previous design would be both confusing in the wider landscape as well as creating poorly deigned houses.”

He said the 2.1-acre site currently comprised a collection of modern agricultural buildings, including two large glasshouses, a yard, and adjoining land.

The individual houses would be laid out with organic winding drives and larger enclosed gardens, achieving more privacy with irregular orientation and separating tree-lined hedgerows.

The previous scheme was approved because it was a betterment to a class Q permission, a special category allowing the conversion to residential use of agricultural buildings without going through a full application process.

Somerset Council wants to hear any comments on the plans by December 13.