A £600,000 housing development is to be built in Porlock - with a 'locals only' tag attached.

The move comes in the wake of fears that young families are being pushed out of Exmoor by sky-high house prices.

The eight-home complex is part of Magna West Somerset Housing Association's on-going districtwide development programme.

The four two-bedroom and four three-bedroom houses, each with its own garden, will be for rent but it is expected that only people with roots, or possibly a job, in the parish will be allowed to move in.

Permission for the Porlock scheme - which includes a brand new doctor's surgery - was given at Tuesday's meeting of Exmoor National Park Authority's planning committee.

Work will begin as soon as the term 'local' has been given a legally-binding definition.

The scheme has the full support of Porlock Parish Council, which has pointed to a "definite need" for social housing in the area

Last year, it was revealed that the average house price on Exmoor had rocketed to £172,669 - a leap of 26 per cent in just 12 months.

A former dairy farm in Timberscombe became the first Exmoor property to go under the hammer for £1 million.

Then a survey conducted by the park authority revealed that nearly a quarter of all houses in the park were being bought as second or holiday homes.

Park officers said they were "shocked" by the findings as only 11 per cent of working home-owners living in Exmoor had originally come from the region.

The revelations led to calls for wealthy incomers to pay full or even double Council Tax to help support the local economy, while others said it was time to introduce a policy of building homes solely for local people.

According to the official Housing Register, there are currently seven 'authentic households' waiting for a two-bedroom house in Porlock and five wanting three-bedroom houses.

But even once Magna's scheme is complete, the demand for affordable homes in West Somerset is likely to far outweigh the number of homes available.

In a report to Tuesday's planning meeting, authority members were told: "Assessing housing need is not an exact science - surveys can miss households and household circumstances can change after surveys are completed.

"The expressed need for housing is consistently higher than the actual number of households who actually occupy built properties.

"As a rule of thumb, normally it can be said that a third of households will actually take up the houses. Potentially, that means up to 30 households would want one of the eight affordable homes proposed."

Members were also told the new homes would fit in well with the character of Porlock's more traditional housing.

The new homes are described as simple in style, with enclosed porches, timber window frames, natural slate roofs and brick chimneys.

The front and end gables of each property will be finished in natural stone, while the back will have a roughcast render.

However, building work cannot begin until the exact wording of the term 'local' has been decided and included in a legal agreement between Magna and the park authority.

At this stage, 'local' is likely to be translated as those who currently live in Porlock and the adjoining parishes of Oare, Exmoor, Luccombe and Selworthy.

People who work in Porlock could also be eligible, as could those who move to the area to start a new job.

People with strong ties to the defined area, such as those with an elderly relative or another family member nearby, and those who previously lived in Porlock and adjoining parishes for a "significant time" could also meet the criteria.

Red tape has also obstructed the start of work on Porlock's new doctor's surgery.

Local GP Ian Kelham has been waiting almost two years for the green light to be given for Magna's plans to develop the former SWEB electricity generating sub-station in High Bank.

He was given planning consent in 1999 to build a new surgery on land alongside the sub-station which would more than quadruple the size of the existing village surgery.

But not a brick could be laid until Magna, as the new owner of the land on which the surgery will be built, had also secured planning permission.

Dr Kelham told the Free Press: "This is going to be quite something for Porlock to get eight new houses and a surgery all in one year.

"It's going to be quite a move for all of us and we're hoping to be in situ before the end of the year."