CONTROVERSIAL plans for 250 houses to be built in farm fields outside Wellington have been comprehensively refused.

The Pegasus Group planning application sparked huge opposition and saw campaign group Protect Wellington formed to fight the propoal.

Hundreds of people attended two recent Protect Wellington mass rallies and a march from the site into the town centre to express their opposition.

On Thursday (April 30), Somerset Council planning officer Karen Wray used delegated powers to turn down the application without it having to go to a committee for councillors to make a decision.

Mrs Wray said the site was in open countryside on land not allocated for housing and lacked suitable ‘connectivity and accessibility’ to the town.

She said it would result in an unsustainable form of development and impact on the visual amenities of the area, the setting of the Blackdown Hills National Landscape, and the grade two starred Wellington Monument.

Wellington town councillors and Wellington Without parish councillors unanimously expressed strong opposition to the plans, as did the Somerset branch of the Campaign to Protect Rural England.

Mrs Wray said she had received 208 letters about the application, only one of which was in support.

She said: “There is overwhelming objection and lack of support to the scheme.”

Mrs Wray said the application site near Middle Green Farm was to the south of the A38 relief road which formed a ‘natural, definitive edge’ to the town.

She said: “Given the scale and location of the development, the proposal would be viewed as an incongruous extension to the town of Wellington.”

Mrs Wray said the development would have been inconsistent with the long-standing spatial vision for Wellington.

She said: “The A38 acts as a physical barrier to providing permeability with the town centre and linkages with the existing residential area.

“Good quality connectivity between the site and the town is seriously compromised by the A38 which severs the potential to create safe non-vehicular connection and therefore a sustainable development.”

Mrs Wray said planning policies set out what types of development could be supported in the open countryside, and general residential development as proposed by Pegasus was not one of them.

She said: “The openness of the site with gently sloping agricultural fields between the A38 to the monument are of significant importance to the undeveloped landscape which forms part of the setting of the monument.

“Development that introduces housing into what is currently an open rural setting will not conserve the monument's significance because it permanently alters the character of the landscape from which the asset has historically derived its prominence.

“Built form, movement, lighting, and other urbanising effects which would clearly and significantly alter the open views both to and from the monument harm its setting, thus reducing its prominence over the area and its significance.

“This is a view supported by the National Trust who are a conservation charity and the custodians of the Wellington Monument.”

Town council chief executive Dave Farrow welcomed the decision.

Mr Farrow said: “We are delighted with this decision as it clearly reflects the views of the town council and all those who submitted their concerns as part of the planning process.

“However, we must not lose sight of the fact that the applicant has a right of appeal and so while we can celebrate the initial decision, we must be ready to continue to argue against the proposal until the full process has been completed.”