Plans to build new homes and a children’s home on council-owned land in Frome have been pulled from an upcoming meeting at the eleventh hour.

Packsaddle Fields, which lies on Frome’s northern edge, has been in public ownership since 1973 and was originally earmarked for a new school.

Somerset County Council announced in March 2022 that it was planning to sell the land off, entering into an agreement with housing association LiveWest.

The housing association put forward plans in March 2023 for 74 homes and a children’s home on the site – with the council’s planning committee east (which handles major applications within the former Mendip area) originally planning to make a ruling on the plans on Tuesday afternoon (November 5).

But this decision has now been pushed back after concerns were raised about the viability of the site and the amount of money LiveWest would contribute towards local schools.

Under the original plans, LiveWest had pledged to provided £882,400 towards school local places – but argued it could not provide any affordable homes due to “ground conditions resulting in increased construction costs”.

In mid-September, two viability reports were published regarding the affordable housing elements within the site – one concluding that 12 per cent could be affordable (the equivalent of nine homes), the other arguing 22 per cent could be affordable (the equivalent of 16 properties).

LiveWest has subsequently indicated to Somerset Council that it can meet its 30 per cent affordable housing target for the site, delivering 16 affordable homes under its own steam and a further six using grants from Homes England (which will be confirmed once planning permission is secured).

But at the same time, its planned contribution to local schools has fallen dramatically to just under £157,000 – a drop of more than 80 per cent.

Nicola Cretney from local campaign group People for Packsaddle said the reduction in contributions “raises alarm bells”, especially at a time when school budgets are so thinly stretched.

She said: “This change comes at a time when the council’s education budgets have considerable overspend forecasts.

“This was confirmed at the executive meeting on October 7, which stated there ‘continues to be significant pressure on costs… with a range of factors putting pressures on schools budgets and historic underfunding of special education needs and disabilities [SEND]’.

“Interestingly, the equivalent education contribution for the comparable Keyford on the Green development of 70 homes (which was approved in June 2023) was £792,000 – including £122,000 for SEND pupils.

“We also note that for the planned Selwood Garden Village,  the figure used as the basis for the £156,700 contribution is £27,600 per pupil. For Packsaddle Fields, that has been reduced to £23,000 per pupil.”

Tim Taylor of legal firm Khift Ltd. has sent numerous letters to the council since mid-September, casting doubt over the viability calculations and arguing the application would violate the council’s own policies over public open space.

He said: “The site was listed as an asset of community venue expressly because it provides recreational green space for the public, and has done so for more than 50 years.

“It is not merely ‘space’, but is both objectively and subjectively open space which is used by the public.

“Your Local Plan seeks to ensure that public open spaces are safeguarded, but that does not mean that other open spaces (whether public or not) which are ‘important parts of our everyday community infrastructure offering a range of social, environmental and health benefits’ should be disregarded.

“Not only does the application currently provide almost one-third less affordable housing than the Local Plan requires but, if the correct education contribution is applied to the viability appraisal, the amount of affordable housing would reduce to less than half of the policy requirement.

“On a site which is outside any development boundary and therefore contrary to the Local Plan (when read as a whole), this is plainly insufficient to outweigh the policy harm caused by the application.”

Somerset Council said it intended for the application to be considered at the committee’s final meeting of the year, which is due to be held in Shepton Mallet on December 3.

A spokesman said: “We can confirm the Packsaddle Way application has been withdrawn from the planning committee east agenda on November 5.

“It will be taken to the next possible committee meeting after a further review of the required Section 106 obligations and scheme viability.”