NEARLY 50 new homes will be built in a small village near the A303 in Somerset following a successful legal challenge.

Glastonbury-based developer Galion submitted plans in April 2021 to build 50 new homes on Broadway Hill in Horton, near Ilminster – with the number being subsequently lowered to 49 following discussions with council planning officers.

Somerset Council’s planning committee south – which makes decisions on major applications in the former South Somerset area – voted to refuse the plans in late-May 2023, claiming the new homes would amount to “over-development” and put a strain on local services.

Hedging its bets, the developer put forward amended plans for the same number of homes in October 2023 – and at the same time launched a formal appeal to the Planning Inspectorate in a bid to get the original decision overturned.

The committee narrowly gave the amended plans the green light in March, with chairman Peter Seib having to use his casting vote.

The developer has now won its appeal against the council – meaning it can choose to implement its original proposals for the new development.

The site lies at the western edge of the village between Horton Village Hall and the existing homes on Broadway Hill, just over a quarter of a mile from the A303 between the Southfields roundabout and the Blackdown Hills national landscape (formerly area of outstanding natural beauty or AONB).

Access will be from Broadway Hill, with an additional pedestrian access being provided onto Pound Road.

Affordable homes included

Of the 49 homes proposed for the site, 17 will be affordable, with 161 car parking spaces and 49 electric vehicle charging points being provided across the whole development.

The site falls within the Somerset Levels and Moors catchment area, meaning that additional mitigation has to be secured to prevent any net increase in phosphates in areas protected by international environmental law.

To address this, the developer will temporarily fallow more than 52 hectares of “productive agricultural land” within the catchment until Wessex Water had upgraded its Broadway waste water treatment plant.

Once this has been completed, the agricultural land will be brought back into use and the remaining phosphates will be offset through nearly seven hectares of “quality and compliant woodland” between Keinton Mandeville and Lydford-on-Fosse.

Previous story: Plans approved by single vote

Legal costs appeal dismissed

A separate appeal, arguing for the council to pay Galion’s legal costs due to “unreasonable behaviour”, was dismissed by the inspector.

Galion is currently delivering 36 homes at the St. Dunstan’s Mede site in Baltonsborough, and recently secured permission for two further developments in Butleigh – comprising 37 new homes and a co-working hub on Baltonsborough Road (approved in early-March) and 32 homes on Sub Road (approved in early-November).

The council’s planning committee south will decide on November 26 whether to approve plans by the same developer to deliver 30 homes on Church Street in Keinton Mandeville.