PLANNING officials have refused to extend a public consultation deadline which runs out this week for one of the most controversial new housing plans in the Wellington area in decades.

Pegasus Group has applied for permission to build 250 houses in fields to the south of the A38 Wellington Relief Road.

Somerset Council is allowing the legally bare minimum of 21 days for people to submit comments on the application, which was registered with it a week before Christmas.

The consultation will expire on Friday (January 16), after which time the planning authority does not have to take notice of any other comments from residents.

Wellington Without Parish Council, within whose boundaries the application lies, asked Somerset to extend the consultation in line with the convention for handling ‘major’ applications, which generally sees three months allowed for comments.

Clerk Neil Dalton said the extension would allow sufficient time for ‘full and proper’ consultation with parishioners in both Wellington town and without parishes.

A three-month consultation period would have expired on March 16, but Somerset refused, although it said it would allow parish councillors only to have until February 6.

Wellington town councillors last week voted unanimously to oppose the plans, citing a multitude of reasons, including the impact on the rural character of the countryside beneath Wellington Monument.

Wellington Without sent several councillors to the town council meeting as observers before its parish meeting the following day.

They heard concerns ranging from breaching the natural boundary of Wellington and the extra strain which would be placed on the town’s infrastructure, to inadequate waste water and sewage treatment facilities, flooding, and the danger for children crossing the busy A38 to go to school.

The without parish councillors will decide on their formal response to the Pegasus application when they meet on Tuesday, February 3.