BUILDING work is expected to start next spring on up 350 new homes in Williton after Somerset Council gave near-unanimous planning permission.

A plan by Tamworth-based Lovell Homes to build a new housing estate off the A39 Priest Street was approved by the council’s planning committee by 11 votes to one.

The decision went against local concerns about increased flooding, more traffic problems, and a lack of renewable energy sources.

The Wyndham Estate originally secured outline permission three-and-a-half years ago to deliver the new homes along with commercial space, leisure facilities, and public open space, before selling to Lovell.

The new homes will range from one-bedroom flats to four-bedroom houses, with 155 of them designated as ‘affordable’, and cycle storage and electric vehicle charging points fitted as standard.

The only vehicular access will be from Priest Street, with the commercial space sited near the main road.

A number of ‘balancing ponds’ will be created within the site to counter localised flooding, and new allotments will be provided on the eastern edge of the development.

Lovell will pay £200,000 to deliver nearly another mile of the Steam Coast Trail, targeted on the B3191 Five Bells to Doniford Road section.

It will also give £500,000 for new walking and cycling links between the new housing and the centre of Williton, and £200,000 for a new toucan crossing at Five Bells to make it safer for children to walk to Danesfield Middle School.

Local bus stops will be upgraded, and £500,000 given to support the No 28 bus service between Minehead and Taunton and the No 15 from Minehead to Bridgwater.

Somerset Cllr Rosemary Woods, who represents Watchet and Williton, was critical of Lovell’s plans.

Cllr Woods said: “The land is very subject to flooding, you talk about the main road coming through the site, that area was always wet.

“I can see no reason why it will not still be wet.

“The actual water was being caught just before the A39, and then the main road was the only place where it could go, and the one place we do not want it.

“They are putting a pond just above the main road into West Somerset, a fact the council does not seem to realise.

“If the B3191 is shut, which it is, the only alternative is to keep to the A39.

“This ought to be withdrawn until some of that problem goes away, and it will not go away while we have parts of my division falling into the sea.”

Lovell Homes is currently delivering two other housing developments, 80 homes on Dene Road, Cotford St Luke, and 71 in Burges Lane, Wiveliscombe.

Several committee members complained Lovell was refusing to use solar panels on the new Williton homes and arguing it was not viable since the Government stopped feed in tariffs in 2019 and would have a ‘negative visual impact’ on the area.

Wiveliscombe and Milverton’s Cllr Dave Mansell said: “There are lots of good features of this scheme, but the energy aspects are disappointing.”