RESIDENTS in parts of Somerset have only a few weeks to have their say on revised plans to deliver nearly 750 additional homes across their area.

Mendip District Council identified a total of 37 sites which could deliver additional housing in the district in its Local Plan Part II, which was ratified by councillors in December 2021.

Following a successful judicial review by Norton St. Philip Parish Council in December 2022, five of these sites were scrapped – three on the edge of Midsomer Norton and two in the villages of Beckington and Norton St. Philip, near Frome.

Somerset Council published a list of sites which could replace these original housing allocations and deliver up to 777 new homes – a list which went out to initial public consultation in March and April.

The council has now produced a revised list of sites, with the public having until August 12 to give their views before the proposals are submitted to the Planning Inspectorate in late-September.

The High Court’s ruling saw five sites struck from the Local Plan Part II, with Somerset Council needing to allocate new sites to deliver a minimum of 505 new homes in the north-eastern part of the former Mendip district.

Following a ‘call for sites’, planning officers whittled down the proposals to a short-list of 11 sites which between them could deliver 777 new houses.

Interestingly, the majority of the ten sites already have outline or full planning permission in place – meaning they could come forward for delivery long before the new Somerset Local Plan comes into force for the whole county in early-2028.

After this initial consultation, two of the sites have been withdrawn on the basis that they are “likely to have been completed” (or nearly completed) before the revised plan can be issued in early-2025.

The two sites in question are the Montgomery Place development on Adderwell Road in Frome (comprising 25 homes) and land on the B3139 Wells Road in Chilcompton, where seven new homes could be delivered.

With these sites being omitted, the council estimates that the remaining developments will deliver a total of 745 homes – of which 569 could reasonably by provided within the next five years.

The majority of the remaining sites already have outline or full planning permission in place – meaning they could come forward for delivery long before the new Somerset Local Plan comes into force in early-2028.

To give your views visit www.somersetcouncil.citizenspace.com/planning/mendip-local-plan-part-ii-limited-update-reg-19