South Somerset District council’s Area East planning committee has unanimously rejected a plan to build 210 houses on West Hill, Wincanton. This is the same council which has allowed at least 289 houses to be built in Templecombe.
In Wincanton, the Council’s planning officials also backed rejection, arguing that the development would have caused serious and permanent harm to the environment.
But in Templecombe the SSDC’s Council’s controversial decision last week to allow 49 houses to be built on farmland , despite rejection TWICE by the Area East Committee and the Regulation Committee (see Blog Story), has outraged residents. Councillors were forced to hold a third regulation committee meeting to approve the plans in order to comply with complex and arcane planning law. This was despite many protests and objections from Templecombe residents.
In both cases public opposition was vocal and unanimous. But only the Templecombe developments are going ahead.
At the present time Templecombe is due to have 289 new houses (and there may be more)
Horsington and the Cheritons are small communities sandwiched between Wincanton and Templecombe. The last thing we want is an “A357 corridor” stretching between the two, littered with speculative developments of boxy houses with poor facilities. Our villages could be completely overwhelmed. And SSDC appear to be terrified of planning appeals. But what will it take to make them listen and do something to protect our communities from unwanted development?