PLANS to build new homes near former council offices in Somerset have been unanimously refused by local councillors.

The Churchfields building in Wincanton town centre served as offices for South Somerset District Council for many years, with part of the building also being leased to Avon and Somerset Constabulary and a local nursery.

The council indicated its intention to sell the building in June 2019, with Arlington (Wincanton) Ltd. securing planning permission in September 2022 to convert the vacant building into 15 flats.

The same company recently applied to build four additional houses on the land behind the former offices, which was originally used by the police for car parking.

But Somerset Council’s planning committee south (which covers the former South Somerset area) has nixed the proposals, arguing there would not be enough parking spaces for the new residents.

The new homes would have been accessed from the existing spur onto Churchfields, which feeds onto the existing one-way system in Wincanton town centre.

The homes would have been a mixture of two- and three-bedroom properties, with all being sold at the market rate – and only six parking spaces in total would have been provided on site.

Howard Ellard, chairman of Wincanton Town Council, spoke against the plans when the planning committee south met in Yeovil on March 28.

He said: “My property is the closest residence to the proposed dwellings – it’s less than six metres away.

“Parking is already very stretched in Wincanton, and particularly in Churchfields, and there is very little public transport. You have failed to take account of these issues.

“When the applicant made his original application to turn the offices into flats, we were very supportive of that; we thought it was an excellent, self-contained scheme and brought a derelict site back into residential use.

“But this application, we feel, is like trying to fit a quart into a pint pot.”

Councillor Henry Hobhouse (who represents the neighbouring Castle Cary division) said there was no sufficient parking for the new homes when taking account of the existing residents.

He said: “The Churchfields car park is normally full. All the houses around this areas only have one car parking space in each house, and the second car gets put into that parking area.

“I am totally unconvinced about this.”

Councillor Martin Wale (Chard North) agreed: “If there was sufficient parking, I could overcome the fact that it’s within the conservation area.

“But unless you can insist that these houses have their own allocated parking spaces, I cannot support this. The knock-on effect with the other development is going to make it impossible for this site to work.”

The committee voted unanimously to refuse the plans after less than an hour’s debate.