TOWN councillors have drawn up comprehensive objections to plans for a large new housing estate on the B3227 road entering Wiveliscombe.

Bloor Homes wants to build 100 homes on 18 acres between Manor Farm and the Sandys Moor estate.

The company said the land could be developed within five years and make an ‘important contribution’ to housing need at a time when Somerset was suffering a ‘significant shortfall’ of new homes.

But, Wiveliscombe councillors said Somerset’s current lack of a five-year housing land supply was only due to local government reorganisation which created the unitary authority in 2023.

They said current planning policies should be upheld and it would be ‘totally contrary, legally unsound, and hypocritical’ if the authority did not stand by the existing local development plan.

Councillors said Bloor’s plans were an ‘opportunistic proposal’ outside Wiveliscombe’s development boundary.

The development plan clearly stated proposals should follow a ‘sequential approach’ which prioritised the most accessible and sustainable locations.

It provided for ‘up to 200’ new dwellings, which had already been met through approved developments in Style Road and Croft Way, the latter being sequentially more sustainable as it was next to Wiveliscombe’s GP surgery and only 164 yards from Kingsmead School and the town centre.

This was in addition to 94 houses in Sandys Moor and ‘in-fillings’, which were already adding significantly to traffic congestion.

Councillors said the eastern edge of Bloor’s proposed estate was more than a mile from the centre of Wiveliscombe and major facilities such as the primary school and recreation ground.

They said the new estate would function as a ‘car orientated development’, failing to address access to health, education, leisure, and other community facilities, creating inequality of access for the young, elderly, less mobile, and non-car users.

The site was greenfield, grade one and two agricultural land which existing planning policies protected.

Town clerk Sarah Towells said: “This development should be refused and should in this instance override any shortfall in a five-year housing land supply.

“This application should be regarded as opportunistic, premature, and contrary to policy.”

Ms Towells said despite Bloor’s proposal being in the pipeline for more than six years there had not been any co-ordinated approach with the earlier Sandys Moor development

She said without such co-ordination, pedestrian safety improvements were not at the forefront of the thinking, resulting in an ‘unnecessary and dangerous’ proposed pavement on the north side of the B3227.

A preferred and safer pedestrian solution was for access directly into Sandys Moor to avoid crossing the B3227, while a second route should be formed to the south of the site to ensure Kingsmead School could be accessed sustainably by foot or cycle.

A proposed B3227 filter lane into the site was regarded as an over-engineered solution and undesirable with a lot of traffic turning right toward Taunton.

A mini roundabout would be preferred as this would take less land for road widening and increase safety through traffic having to slow down, or access to the B3227 via the Sandys Moor junction roundabout.