EAGLE-eyed Wellington Mayor Cllr Janet Lloyd has been praised for ‘saving’ more than £4 million for the town.

The money – Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) – will eventually be paid by housing developer Bovis Homes as it builds a controversial development of 205 properties beside Exeter Road, Rockwell Green.

It will be used to fund work on new infrastructure to help the town cope with the pressures brought by the several hundred new residents the housing site will attract.

Detailed plans for the development will be considered by Somerset West and Taunton Council’s planning committee tomorrow (Thursday).

But the committee report by planning officer Jeremy Guise recommending the plans should be approved, told councillors CIL would not be applied to the site because it was inside the town’s development boundary and therefore zero-rated.

Residential development outside the boundary attracts CIL at a rate of £125 per square metre.

The claim was quickly spotted by Cllr Lloyd, who is also a district councillor, and she queried it with planning managers and persuaded them to amend the report to state that CIL totalling £4.064 million was estimated to be due.

Cllr Lloyd said: “This development was not wanted by Wellington in the first place and was only approved in the most controversial manner at a public inquiry.

“So, I was horrified to think that not only were we having 200 new houses forced on us, but we were also not going to receive the financial support we need for projects such as road schemes and playing fields.

“The fact the site is outside the development boundary was a major reason for it being refused by the former Deane council when the plans were originally put forward two years ago by Gladman Developments.

“I therefore did not understand how it would not be rated for CIL and I was very thankful that the planning officers quickly realised their error and corrected the report so that councillors have the proper information when they take a decision on it on Thursday.”

Fellow town Cllr John Thorne, who is also one of Wellington’s two county councillors, said: “Full marks go to Cllr Lloyd for spotting this error so quickly.

“The question I have asked is whether the developer would have got away without having to pay the £4 million if the planning committee had approved plans which said no CIL was payable.

“It sounds to me like a scenario where a £500 television is mistakenly advertised for £50 and the retailer then has to sell it at that price.

“Fortunately, Cllr Lloyd has saved us from having to worry about that and we now know thismoney will become available to Wellington.

“There is so much we need to get sorted out as the town continues to grow rapidly, such as the awful congestion we see at Chelston roundabout during peak times, more bus services to Taunton, more playing fields for our expanding sports clubs, more GP surgeries and dental practices.”

Cllr Thorne, an outspoken critic of the district council’s planning department, said it was ‘yet another major error by the planners who have let down Wellington time and again in recent years’.

Tomorrow’s planning application seeks ‘reserved matters approval’ which covers the detailed design and layout of the 205 dwellings, public open space, landscaping, drainage, and ancillary development.

The principle of developing the three agricultural fields totalling about 26 acres was approved on appeal in September, 2018.

However, plans for a separate development within the site of 60 care apartments which was approved at the same time has been left out of the application for now because its marketing has been unsuccessful.

All of the new housing will be two-storey with the exception of a three-storey block of nine one-bedroom affordable flats strategically placed close to the entrance in the centre of the site.

Across the development, 51 affordable homes will be included, representing just under 25 per cent, of which five will be designed to be fully-adapted wheelchair=accessible disability living properties.

About one-third of the site will be open space, including an oval-shaped central green area, the periphery, and two balancing ponds, which will be transferred to a management company to maintain.

High speed broadband connectivity will be made available for all the properties before they are occupied, and electric vehicle charging points will also be provided for each home, either within garages or through shared charge units.

Although recommending approval, Mr Guise said in his report ‘wholly uncritical support cannot be offered’ for the Bovis plans.

He said some streets would be dominated by car parking, and gardens for some houses were going to be ‘quite small’ and close to and shaded by neighbouring properties.

However, Mr Guise said it was not possible to resolve the issues because all potential solutions led to problems of one sort or another.

Somerset County Council has announced that it intends to reduce the speed limit on Exeter Road from 60 mph to 30 mph.