ONE of Somerset’s largest villages could soon expand even further if revised plans for new homes are approved.

The Ninesquare Trust secured outline planning permission from Mendip District Council in January to build up to 280 homes on land west of the B3151 Somerton Road in Street, a stone’s throw from the prestigious Millfield School.

The site has now been sold to Curo Enterprise Ltd., which has submitted revised proposals for the same number of homes within the site.

Somerset Council – which replaced the district council in April – is expected to make a decision on the amended proposals by the late-spring.

The site is one of four in Street allocated for housing within the Mendip Local Plan Part II, which identified additional sites to meet the former district’s housing needs up to 2029.

The new homes will range from one-bedroom flats to four-bedroom houses, with 30 per cent of the new properties being affordable – the equivalent of 84 dwellings.

Access will be from a new junction onto Somerton Road near the northern end of the site, with the existing pavements along the eastern edge being enhanced.

A spokesman for RHaR (representing the developer) said: “The proposed reserved matters scheme aims to refine the vision set out at the outline stage and bring forward a refined scheme that delivers a balanced neighbourhood of the very highest standard.

“The proposed layout has a taller cluster around the site entrance,as before, with the majority of the layout at two storeys, and as the development moves out to the north and western edges one-and-a-half-storey dwellings have been introduced.

“This ensures a good relationship with the conservation area to the west and neighbouring housing to the north.

“Parking has been carefully designed to ensure that vehicles do not dominate
the streets.”

A decision on the original plans – which were submitted back in December 2019 – was delayed by the phosphates crisis, with the council and developer negotiating additional mitigation to prevent additional damage to the Somerset Levels and Moors.

Outline consent was granted on the basis that a pig farm near Wraxall, upstream of the development site, would be taken out of commission and replaced by new woodland.

The revised proposals include the creation of new wetlands in the middle of the site, with the existing public right of way between Somerton Road and Burleigh Lane being retained as an attractive board-walk for pedestrians and cyclists, similar to sections of the Exe Estuary Trail in east Devon.

Curo Enterprise Ltd. is currently delivering 198 homes on the Keyford Meadows site on Sandys Hill Lane in Frome, with an application for the commercial element of the site expected to come forward in the new year.

The Bath-based developer attempted to secure permission to deliver a further 54 homes on the Orchard Vale site in Midsomer Norton; however, these plans were refused by councillors in early-November.

The council is expected to make a decision on Curo’s proposals by the middle of next year.

Given the scale of the development, this decision is anticipated to be made in public by its planning committee east, rather than via the delegated powers of its planning officers.