Planned site of 200 homes near busy Somerset railway station on sale for £10m
£10m asking price set for planned housing site near Castle Cary railway station
The planned site for 200 new homes near one of Somerset’s busiest railway stations has been put on the market for £10m.
Wyke Farms and Hopkins Estates Ltd. secured outline planning permission on appeal in May 2022 to build new homes on the A371 Ansford Hill, immediately south of Castle Cary railway station.
Wyke Farms submitted revised plans for the development (dubbed ‘Station Green)’ in January 2025, with Somerset Council expected to make a final decision on the proposals within the next six months.
The site has now been put on the market by Waymark Property (based in Wantage, in Oxfordshire) at a guide price of £10m – with potential buyers having until May 14 to put in their offers.
Under the outline permission, the new owners of the site must deliver 70 affordable homes as part of the development, as well as providing public open space and resurfacing the existing footpath leading from Ansford Hill to the railway station along the site’s eastern boundary.
A separate pedestrian crossing over Ansford Hill will be provided by Backhouse Housing as part of a planned development of 49 homes south of the same road.
A spokesperson for Waymark Property said: “Reserved Matters applications have been submitted for this with many conditions already discharged.
“The final discharges are expected in the early-summer.”
In addition to the affordable housing, any new developer must make a number of financial contributions to services in Ansford and Castle Cary – including more than £1m towards new primary school places, and £150,000 for changing facilities at the Donald Pither Memorial Ground.
Due to the timing of the appeal decision (and the new application), the development will have to include additional mitigation to prevent any net increase in phosphates on the Somerset Levels and Moors (which includes the River Brue catchment area in which Castle Cary sits).
As part of the outline legal agreement with the council, this mitigation will take the form of “off-site land use change and fallowing of farmland” elsewhere in the catchment.
A spokesperson for Wyke Farms said: “The Station Green development will respect and enhance the existing character of Castle Cary and Ansford.
“From ready-equipped play areas to open recreational, green spaces, with good access to local facilities, it is designed with the whole family in mind.”
Castle Cary railway station currently handles more than 354,000 passenger journeys a year (according to the Office of Rail and Road), with local councillor Henry Hobhouse revealing in early-February that discussions were under way with Great Western Railway (GWR) to deliver a third car park on site to cope with additional passenger demand.
Following a successful campaign by the Glastonbury TrainLink group, the new 667X bus service will begin running in June on a six-month trial basis, providing a service to the station from Street via Glastonbury.
The council is expected to make a ruling on the Station Green proposals by the late-summer.