A CONTROVERSIAL plan by businessman David Gliddon to build a supermarket, shops and offices in the village, has been recommended for refusal by Williton Parish Council.

At a special virtual meeting last Tuesday, councillors also agreed that if Somerset West and Taunton Council approved the application they would ask the authority to impose a range of conditions.

Planning committee chairman Cllr Elizabeth Peeks said that, if the council wanted to recommend refusal of the scheme, grounds could include the potential loss of the inner relief road, problems with a proposed roundabout at the entrance to the development, the effect on the vitality of the village,the loss of on-street parking and gardens and the lack of disability access.

She said there was also a lack of information on the effect on retail and traffic of a number of planning applications still to be determined.

Cllr Peeks said Mr Gliddon’s outline application was similar to one approved in July 2017 but had two main changes.

Pedestrian access from the development to Fore Street, which originally cut through the Lloyds Bank building, would now be diverted through the Breeze art gallery and a proposed retail unit at the entrance to the site from Bank Street had been increased from two to three storeys.

Cllr Peeks said that the proposed development included a 2,300 square metre supermarket. A shop fronting Bank Street would replace a part of J Gliddon and Sons’ store which would be demolished to allow the construction of a new roundabout.

She said the new access into Fore Street would lead onto a narrow pavement: “This was something that we were unhappy about when we discussed the application before. The width of the pavement is far more important now due to social distancing and it has been recognised that we need to have wider pavements.

“If the council is recommending refusal, the narrowness of the pavement should be taken into account. It does not help to make shopping in Williton more attractive and was already a problem in normal times.”

Cllr Peeks added that the new link from the development to Fore Street would mean one cottage would lose its garden and others would lose their privacy.

Cllr Mick White said: “Traffic is a concern but I don’t think it will be as bad as some councillors have alluded to. I honestly think that what Gliddons have put forward in this planning application could be a very good thing for Williton.”

But he warned that all the village’s proposed developments needed to be looked at altogether, not in isolation, and an overall plan devised: “The supermarket plan with other shops could be a good thing in principle but it’s all the other bits that go with it,” he added.

The district council’s planning committee will consider the application at a future meeting.

For the full report, see today’s Free Press.