A decision on plans for more than 100 new homes and a medical centre in a small Somerset town have been pushed back due to road safety concerns.

Up to 125 new homes are proposed to be delivered either side of Brewham Road in Bruton – with the Acorn Property Group putting forward proposals for 60 homes to the south, and Woolsington One Ltd. applying to build 65 new homes to the north, as well as allocating land for a new doctors’ surgery.

Both sets of plans have been considerably delayed by the ongoing phosphates crisis, with the developers negotiating additional mitigation with Somerset Council’s planning officers to prevent further damage to the Somerset Levels and Moors.

The council’s planning committee south convened in Yeovil on July 23 to discuss both applications, with planning officers recommending that both proposals be given the go-ahead.

But the committee voted to defer a decision on both proposals until further assurances had been provided regarding highway safety and the access to both sites.

While the bulk of the homes will be constructed either side of Brewham Road, only the Acorn scheme will include a vehicular access onto the road – with a separate pedestrian access being provided onto Darkey Lane, providing a safe walking route to the town’s railway station.

The homes within the northern site (including 23 affordable properties) will be accessed from Wyvern Close, with the existing cul-de-sac being extended into a spine road and the northern edge of the site being largely allocated at public open space.

The new medical centre – which will replace the existing Bruton Surgery on Patwell Lane – will be constructed at the northern end of the development, with the Newcastle-based developer providing nearly £27,000 towards the cost of the project.

The existing surgery was identified as needing to expand or relocate by NHS bosses as far back as September 2020 – and currently has more than 5,700 patients on its books, as of December 2023 (the most recent figures available).

Acorn did secure outline planning permission from South Somerset District Council in November 2019 – leading locals to brand councillors as “having no common sense” in light of fears about rising traffic.

However, the legal agreements surrounding the site were not signed off by the time Natural England issued its legal advice on phosphates in August 2020 – meaning the plans have to be redetermined with the new mitigation measures included.

To offset the phosphates generated by the new homes, the developers will purchase phosphate credits from the fallowing of land at Manor Farm in Prestleigh, near Shepton Mallet – with a package treatment plan being installed by Albion Water within the Acorn site as an additional measure.

Councillors expressed severe reservations over both schemes when the planning committee south met in Yeovil on July 23 to discuss the proposals.

Councillor Tom Power (whose Wincanton and Bruton division includes the site) said: “Brewham Road connects to the one-way system which goes down to the library junction.

“When I travel from Wincanton to come and see family, I often have to go along Brewham Road, and it is incredibly narrow.

“Bruton is an old Saxon town – it is not fit for 21st-century traffic.”

Councillor Sue Osborne (Ilminster) added: “I sat on the district council’s regulation committee in 2019 and I know there was a very long debate about the proposed highways scheme to make this development supposedly acceptable.

“I wasn’t happy with the road scheme then, and since 2019 traffic has got heavier in Bruton, as it has everywhere else.”

The committee voted to defer a decision on the Acorn plans by 11 votes to one, and to do the same on the Woolsington One site by ten votes to one (with one abstention).

The council has not indicated how soon the proposals will come back before the committee for a decision.