AN outline application to build 94 homes and light industrial units in Wiveliscombe was conditionally approved this week – despite objections that 200 homes have already been allocated for the town and it goes against the Local Plan and national policy.

The development will be on just over 16 acres at Sandys Moor, largely on farmland owned by Somerset County Council, CMS Developments Ltd and Wessex Water Services Ltd.

Part of the site is currently designated for employment on the Local Plan.

Objectors at Taunton Deane Borough Council’s last-ever planning committee on Wednesday said, among other things, that:

* Wiveliscombe’s relevant plans were up to date and the town had already breached its target of up to 200 new homes

n The development would allow a 50 per cent increase in the town’s housing allocation numbers outside of the development plan process

* A statement by Somerset County Council that proceeds of the sale would be ‘reinvested into financially supporting the delivery of services’ was not a planning consideration and should not be a factor in deciding the application

* Sandys Moor should be retained for business use only and not used for housing, which was contrary to the Local Plan

* It was not correct to say residential development would kick start employment generation; there were already new business developments on site and more would be following, and the claim that business-use applications have not been made was untrue

* Extra housing would add to pressures on Wiveliscombe’s infrastructure, including schools and doctors’ surgery, and increase parking difficulties in the town centre

* The proposal lacked safe footpaths and crossing points to the town

Objectors at the meeting included Cllr Dave Mansell, Taunton Deane Borough Councillor for Wiveliscombe and West Deane and a Wiveliscombe town councillor, Pauline Homeshaw, chairman of Wiveliscombe Civic and Historical Society, and representatives from the town council and others.

Mrs Homeshaw told the Free Press after the meeting: “I am completely disappointed at the planning committee’s decision, it undermines everything the National Planning Policy Framework, and the council’s own Development Plan, was set up to do.

“To have rushed through such an important decision after the planning committee had been meeting for five hours on a long agenda, and decide it within 25 minutes, is an insult to Wiveliscombe.”

For the full report, buy tomorrow’s Free Press (March 29).