A major new development on the edge of Somerset’s county town can finally get underway after plans for the first phase were approved by councillors.

Taunton Deane Borough Council granted permission in October 2017 for the Staplegrove urban extension between the A358 Pen Elm and Taunton Road – divided into Staplegrove West (713 homes and employment land) and Staplegrove East (915 homes and a new primary school).

Both sections of the development have been repeatedly delayed – first by legal issues surrounding the use of Corkscrew Lane during the construction, then by allocation of funding for the school and spine road, and most recently by the Dutch N case on phosphate levels.

Ptarmigan Staplegrove Ltd. was granted permission by Somerset West and Taunton Council in September to create two new wetlands to the north of Taunton, designed to offset phosphates generated by the new homes.

The council has now approved plans by Bloor Homes South West for the green buffer which will surround the Staplegrove West site, allowing further applications for the homes and spine road to come forward in due course.

The Staplegrove urban extension is one of three such development areas which will deliver the bulk of Taunton’s new housing over the next two decades.

The other two urban extensions lie in Comeytrowe (also known as Orchard Grove, on the A38 Wellington Road) and Monkton Heathfield (on the A38 between the county town and Bridgwater).

Both of these latter extensions have seen considerable activity in recent times, with the council’s planning committee recently approving plans in September for 55 homes within the latest phase of the Orchard Grove site, and a decision on phase two of the Monkton Heathfield site being expected by the spring of 2023.

The council admitted in December 2021 that both elements of the Staplegrove site were currently being delayed due to the phosphates crisis – whereby any development which increases phosphate levels on the Somerset Levels and Moors must provide additional mitigation to provide further environmental damage.

A decision on plans for the first 173 homes within Staplegrove West (put forward by Redrow Homes) were pushed back to allow for an “integrated constructed wetland” to be pursued to complement the site – and this application was subsequently withdrawn in mid-February.

Progress on Staplegrove East is moving even slower, with outline consent not being formally granted (despite the vote in 2017) and the plans being “delayed without a time-scale for resolution.”

These latest plans for the Staplegrove West site do not include any of the proposed new homes; instead, they provide a green buffer which runs from the A358 along the northern edge of the site up to Whitmore Lane, where the site meets the Staplegrove East allocation.

The buffer includes a sizeable section of green space between the existing Cross Keys roundabout (where the A358 to Williton meets the B3227 to Wiveliscombe) and the new spine road, which joins the A358 Staplegrove Road east of the Silk Mills roundabout (leading to the park and ride site).

This section of the buffer is designed to increase ecological diversity around the Back Stream, which flows south into the Norton Brook and thereafter into the River Tone through the town centre.

David Lawson, representing the Residents of Staplegrove Action Group (RoSAG), criticised the proposals when the council’s planning committee met in Taunton on Thursday afternoon (November 10).

He said: “Over the past few years, climate change and localised flooding has certainly increased. Sudden heavy rain is now much more frequent, and concreting over agricultural land will mean that these developments often increase the flooding risk for the surrounding areas.

“The amount of rain that comes off the Quantock Hills is substantial, and areas of Staplegrove such as Rectory Road, Manor Road and Corkscrew Lane already have experience of flooding.

“Is there some way the developer can be held liable for downstream flooding, so things can be quickly resolved?”

Councillor Mark Lithgow said he was “relatively happy” with the proposals, but questioned whether the spine road would start and finish in the most appropriate places.

He said: “From what I understand, there’s isn’t a problem with where it is at the western end – it’s the eastern end where there’s a problem. If we agree to where it’s going to be today, will that impact on where it can come at the eastern end?”

Simon Fox, the council’s major projects officer for planning, responded: “The outline application approved the point of access for the western site. Beyond there, it doesn’t implicate on the wider alignment of the spine road.”