A CONTROVERSIAL housing development of up to 315 homes in Rockwell Green outside Wellington’s development boundary has been given permission to go ahead despite hundreds of objections, including from town councillors.
Gladman Developments appealed to the Government’s Planning Inspectorate to give consent after Somerset Council took more than a year and still did not make a decision on its planning application.
Now, planning inspector Philip Major, who held a one-day public inquiry in March into the proposals, has officially approved the development in Exeter Road, behind the Dobree Park estate.
Bankruptcy-threatened Somerset Council’s planning officers decided not to fight the plans at the inquiry because of the cost of doing so and instead offered no opposition.
The site is on the opposite side of Exeter Road from the 205-home Monument View estate currently under construction, for which Gladman similarly won permission on appeal in 2018, although this time the former borough council planning officers abandoned their objections part-way through the inquiry proceedings.
Mr Major said it had been agreed the unitary council was unable to demonstrate a five-year supply of deliverable housing land, which tilted the balance of the decision in favour of approval.
He said the main issues to considerer were the risk of flooding, the impact on roads and the character and appearance of the area, and mitigating the effects of phosphate emissions.
Mr Major said Gladman was proposing to first collect surface water on site and then to control its release so rivers could cope with the flow.
He said the ratio of traffic flow to the capacity of the road network was ‘well within acceptable limits’ and there were no objections from the council’s highways officers.
Mr Major said the new estate access would be close to pedestrian refuges/lane splitting islands in Exeter Road which would prevent overtaking manoeuvres and discourage speeding motorists.
As for affecting the character of the area, Mr Major said in his judgement ‘the site is best appreciated as being unexcitingly agricultural in character but with strong urban fringe influences’ and could not be described as ‘valued’.
Mr Major said any short-term harm to the overall character of the area could be mitigated over time with the provision of ‘green infrastructure’ on the new estate.
On the subject of phosphates, Mr Major said the land would no longer be used for arable farming and Gladman was proposing attenuation ponds to store water on site, which would mitigate the emissions for up to 150 new homes.
He said the Government required wastewater treatment plants to be upgraded by 2030, so as long as no more than 150 properties were built before then, the development would be phosphate neutral.
Mr Major therefore granted outline planning permission, with the development’s detailed design to be considered by the council at a later stage.
The scheme also includes a convenience store to be built at the entrance to the estate, and a requirement for one-quarter, or 79, of the new homes, which vary from one-bedroom flats to four-bedroom houses, to be ‘affordable’.