25 new Wiveliscombe homes approved despite traffic and flooding fears
Debate over traffic and flooding fails to halt 25-home approval by Somerset Council
Up to 25 new homes will be built in a growing town on the edge of Exmoor after plans were approved by local councillors.
Taunton-based Summerfield Developments put forward outline plans in January 2025 to build the new homes at Greenway Farm on North Street at the northern edge of Wiveliscombe, a short distance from the boundary with the national park.
The plans came before Somerset Council’s planning committee west on Tuesday morning (February 24), with local Green Party councillor Dave Mansell raising concerns about traffic levels and localised flooding.
But after an hour’s debate, the committee voted to approve the plans, citing the overwhelming need to provide new homes in rural areas.
The site lies on the western side of North Street, bordered by Greenway Lane to the south and the existing residential development on Plain Pond and the neighbouring streets to the east.
A new access road will be created onto North Street between the existing openings onto Allenside Close and Plain Pond, with the existing farm track to Greenway Farm being retained at the northern edge.
Of the 25 homes planned for the site, seven will be affordable – narrowly exceeding the council’s target of 25 per cent affordable housing for any new development of ten homes or more within the former Taunton Deane area.
An area to the west of the new homes will be set aside in order to achieve the mandated ten per cent biodiversity net gain, with additional landscaping being provided at the perimeter of the site.
Wiveliscombe lies within the River Tone catchment area, meaning that the development must include additional mitigation to prevent any net increase in phosphates on the Somerset Levels and Moors.
To offset the new homes, Summerfield intends to upgrade an existing septic tank (which serves five neighbouring dwellings) to a package treatment plant, which allows phosphates to be removed through chemical dosing before they enter the local watercourses.
Mr Mansell, whose Upper Tone division includes Wiveliscombe, raised numerous concerns with the plans when the planning committee west (which handles major applications within the former Somerset West and Taunton area) met in Taunton on Tuesday morning (February 24).
He said: “People park along North Street, and they have no parking in their houses – this is an issue throughout the whole of the town.
“Will these plans impact on their ability to park on North Street, especially between Greenway Farm and the Northgate turning?
“Wiveliscombe is not a place that is unhappy to have development – it knows that it needs this to thrive. But where developments have been approved outside of the settlement boundary before, they have been exception sites entirely connected to local need.
“A lot of water comes down off the hill and we get regular flooding incidents at the bottom. A lot of the drains are very old and problems keep cropping up.
“We are taking our share of housing, but we’re not getting our local infrastructure improved. This never gets addressed in new developments.”
Summerfield is currently building out the Killams Park estate in southern Taunton and the Liddymore Park development at the southern edge of Watchet.
Councillor Gwilym Wren (Independent, Upper Tone) said building outside of the town boundary was “particularly unwelcome” and reasoned that building here would increase congestion in the town centre.
He said: “When leaving the site, you can either go down Northgate, which is subject to increasing development, or through the town centre, which is even worse.
“From a traffic point of view, this probably hasn’t been thought through very well.
“We’re playing blind here over flood risk – there’s an awful lot we don’t know. The whole drainage proposals are really underpowered.”
Northgate runs east to west across the northern edge of Wiveliscombe and includes the Burges Lane development being delivered by Lovell Homes – the third phase of which, comprising 71 houses, was approved back in June 2024.
Councillor Marcus Kravis (Liberal Democrat, Dunster) took a more philosophical view, arguing it would be hard to refuse the plans on the grounds of highway safety.
He said: “Although I can understand the lived experience of highway issues, when you’re looking at 25 houses we’d struggle to argue they represent demonstrable harm.
“One of the biggest beefs that my parish councils have is the culverts or drains not being big enough, because they weren’t done properly in the first place.
“Although I’d very reluctant to refuse this application based on those grounds alone, I think there could be an argument in the reserved matters application for further information on how all the drainage is going to work.
“It’s probably not a bad location if you’re looking to put 25 houses there, as an outsider looking in.”
Councillor Habib Farbahi (Lib Dem, Comeytrowe and Trull) said: “While the site lies outside the settlement boundary, it sits directly adjacent to existing housing within walking distance of the town centre.
“This site is actually delivering seven affordable units, which are much needed in small towns such as Wiveliscombe.”
Councillor Steven Pugsley (Conservative, Dulverton and Exmoor) added: “I think this is one situation where we try to take what wins we can.”
After around an hour’s debate, the committee voted to approve the plans by seven votes to four.
Summerfield is expected to bring forward a reserved matters application, providing further details on the design and layout of the new homes, within the next 12 months.