WELLINGTON Town Council unanimously decided at its February meeting to oppose a suggested new housing estate of 205 homes and 60 apartments at Exeter Road, Rockwell Green.

It agreed to recommend Taunton Dene Borough Council, which will make the final decision, to refuse the scheme as it considered premature and outside the present agreed housing boundaries.

Resident Diana Land said that she and other neighbours were strongly opposed to the application because if it was successful it would open up huge areas in the town for development. Local amenities were already fully stretched.

Deane planning officer Mathew Bale said that the council already had six years’ supply of housing land available. The minimum which councils should have available was five years’ supply.

Cllr Janet Lloyd said that there were 43 objections to the site. She did not feel more housing was needed in Wellington at the moment. The Longforth Farm and Cades Farm sites were still being developed and there was the large already approved Jurston Farm site to be started.

Cllr Marcus Barr said he believed that Wellington had not played its fair share on housing and felt that 1,000 to 1,500 new houses should be built each year in the town ‘in the right places’. He pointed out that the Government had said that hundreds of thousands of new homes were needed in the country.