ILMINSTER NEWS: Persimmon Homes plans for Canal Way still unresolved

A RARELY assembled committee at South Somerset District Council will be called upon to determine a controversial planning application in Ilminster.

Members of the council’s Area West committee decided on Wednesday (August 16, 2017) to refer an application put forward by Persimmon Homes to build up to 400 homes on land off Canal Way to the authority’s regulation committee.

The regulation committee looks at more contentious applications and recommendations with the Area West councillors voting in favour of the Persimmon proposals being refused.

It is understood that the regulation committee will need to have more detailed information and reports about the application in order to make a decision.

But it is extremely rare for the regulation committee to sit and the council’s own website suggests that the last time it met was over three years ago in April 2014. The next scheduled meetings of the regulation committee are Tuesday, September 19, 2017, and Tuesday, October 17, 2017.

Planning officer Andrew Gunn had recommended in a report which went before the Area West committee on Wednesday (August 16, 2017) at the Guildhall in Chard that the Persimmon Homes application should be given permission.

But councillors voted in favour of referring the application to the regulation committee with a recommendation that it should be turned down.

The application put forward by Persimmon Homes is for outline permission only for the development. If given the go-ahead the developers would then need to provide further and more detailed information as part of a full application to get the final green light, although that will be a virtual formality.

Earlier this month members of Ilminster Town Council objected to the amended Persimmon Homes plans and said the developers could not “wave a wand like Harry Potter” and hope that everything will be ok.

They are worried about the extra traffic that will be generated by the development and the lack of infrastructure to meet the needs of 400 extra homes, plus the problems emergency vehicles might have in getting onto the new estate.

They know that the application will sooner or later get the go-ahead as the earmarked site has been identified as the “future growth” for Ilminster, but have asked that the district council looks at scaling down the size of the development further.

Persimmon has already reduced the number of homes from 450 to 400 in its amended proposals.

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