A NEW wetlands area could be created near West Buckland, alongside junction 26 of the M5 motorway, which would allow progress to be made on major new housing and commercial developments across Somerset.

Thousands of new homes in the county have been stopped from being built because of a Natural England ruling prohibiting any increase in phosphate levels on the Somerset Levels and Moors.

Most of the Somerset West and Taunton Council (SWT) area drains onto the levels, which is a protected wildlife site of international importance, meaning proposed development have been put on hold unless it could be shown how phosphate emissions could be mitigated.

Now, SWT has looked at various mitigation ideas and has set aside £2 million to create new wetlands and adopt a new system of ‘phosphate credits’ which could deliver around 700 new houses.

As part of this, Chelston Heath LLP has put forward plans to create new wetlands near West Buckland, close to a 9.4-acre site on which it wants to build a £35 million business park.

The Taunton-based company applied in January to deliver new business units on the eastern side of the link road - colloquially known as the ‘concrete carriageway’ - which connects Chelston roundabout to Junction 26.

The planned development would include two food and drink restaurant kiosks and one restaurant, as well as an electric vehicle charging hub, and could create up to 236 new jobs.

In order to mitigate the impact of this commercial development, the company intends to create new wetlands at the southern tip of the site, which forms part of the River Tone catchment area.

The wetlands site is bordered by Haywards Water, which runs from its source in the Blackdown Hills around the Foxmoor Business Park, under the Chelston link road, past the Blackdown Garden Centre, and flows into the River Tone near Bradford-on-Tone.

Under the plans, seven new ponds will be created, connected by weirs, with significant numbers of trees being planted within the site.

The wetlands will be accessed for maintenance from Park Lane, just off the A38, with a public right of way which currently runs through the site being left in place, and a new path around the perimeter being created.

A spokesman for agents Tetra Tech Planning said: “The principal objective of the wetland is to improve water quality by reducing the concentration of phosphate in Haywards Water, which ultimately joins the River Tone.

“Phosphate removed by the proposed wetland would be used to offset phosphate surpluses at development projects in the River Tone catchment, and thus allow a number of stalled planning applications to progress.

“Phosphate sources within the catchment are largely of agricultural origin with inputs also received from septic tank overflows.”

Besides its own proposed commercial development, Chelston Heath LLP has not specified any other sites which could be unlocked if the new wetland was successfully delivered.

SWT is expected to make a planning decision on both the Chelston Heath commercial and wetlands plans before the end of the year.