Taunton Deane Borough Council has granted outline planning permission for a large mixed use urban extension which will include up to 2,000 new houses, quarter of which will be affordable housing.
The proposals also include 5.25 hectares of employment land, a new primary school and local centre as well as a 330-space park and ride facility. However, the outline planning permission has been granted subject to conditions, including the condition that no phase of the development can be occupied or used until a new spine road has been constructed, and no more than 350 homes can be occupied before the primary school and pre-school has been built.
Although the proposal is in line with the local planning authority's approved Core Strategy, opponents of the scheme objected to it on the grounds that the scheme was too big and was in the wrong location. However, the Borough Council said that the decision was made to grant outline permission with "a huge amount of input from the local community".
Now that the outline planning permission has been granted, the consortium of developers involved in the project will now have to submit an application for the approval of the finer details of the scheme.
Chris Winter, from Summerfield Developments, said, "We've got to provide houses and wherever we put them there are going to be issues. The population is growing and we've got to deliver houses and solutions."
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