Blue Peter legend leads battle over housing bid
DEVELOPERS face opposition in the formidable shape of former Blue Peter presenter Valerie Singleton at a planning inquiry in Somerset this week.
Gleeson Strategic Land Ltd originally applied to build 80 homes on the Manor Farm site at the southern end of Templecombe, just off the busy A357.
The plans were subsequently amended to 60 homes, with an increased amount of green space being provided within the site.
But South Somerset District Council still refused permission last August, stating the development would still cause “unacceptable harm” to existing residents and local heritage assets.
Following an appeal by the developer, the matter will now be decided by a four-day virtual hearing, beginning tomorrow.
Templecombe has seen significant interest from developers in recent years, with the Manor Farm site one of several identified for future housing. Plans to build 49 homes on West Street were approved by the council’s regulation committee in June 2020 after they had been turned down at two previous hearings – a decision residents described as “an affront to common sense”.
Thales Group was granted outline permission for 70 homes on Slades Hill in December 2018, as part of the expansion of its existing facility.
Ms Singleton, who lives in the village, said the cumulative increase in traffic from Manor Farm and the other two sites would be “a terrible problem”.
Speaking in late 2019, when the Manor Farm plans were first put forward, she said: “The increase in car pollution (at a time when we are meant to be cutting back on this) and extra traffic is one of the things you hear most from people.
“We are used as a cut-through from the A303 to the A30 – and the lorries coming through are terrible.
“Of course, new housing is important, and we all realise that, but it had to be done well and in a well thought-out way.”
Gleeson Strategic Land Ltd said the scheme had been designed with “a thorough understanding of the physical characteristics of the site and its surroundings”, arguing it was the most viable scheme for this part of the village.
Tomorrow’s virtual hearing will begin at 10am, with all four days livestreamed via the council’s YouTube channel. A final decision is expected in the summer.
A safety fence is to be added to the edge of Lyme Regis golf course to protect coast path walkers from flying balls.
The 106-metre section of green chain link fence will be put up two metres from the north-east boundary of the course, alongside a new section of public footpath, to comply with health and safety regulations. It is expected to be almost 2.5m high.
Both Charmouth and Lyme Regis councils recommended approval.
The Dorset Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty partnership said it saw no grounds for objecting, given the need to protect people, but said it would prefer the fence to be dark green.
A similar fence was approved in 2018, but never erected.
Asda, Weymouth, has been refused permission to make and receive deliveries around the clock at its Newstead Road store.
The company says 24-hour deliveries, which it has been carrying out since March, have not generated any complaints, although two ward councillors say there have been problems and more than a dozen residents objected to the proposed changes.
Dorset Council has now rejected the application and says the store must return to the loading and unloading of goods vehicles between 7am and 10pm daily.
Asda argued that without the permanent change to 24-hour operations it would be under pressure trying to deal with the increase in home deliveries and in-store sales
generated by the Covid pandemic.
A Somerset restaurant will have to remove ‘dining igloos’ from its grounds after being refused retrospective planning permission.
Martin and Susan Felstead run Greenway Farm, on Skimmerton Lane in Wembdon, near Bridgwater, hosting weddings as well as running a restaurant and bed-and-breakfast business.
The couple installed a number of plastic ‘igloos’ in their grounds to allow people in small groups to dine outside with food from the restaurant. But these will now have to be removed after Sedgemoor District Council refused to grant the couple retrospective planning application, citing local residents being negatively impacted by noise.
Every Monday the will provide a round-up of some of the more significant planning issues in the region. New planning applications will have their case-reference number shown – full details of the application can be seen on the respective council’s website.