A controversial plan to let companies build on green fields without the need for planning permission will not help bring jobs back, locals say.

Plans for the Somer Valley Enterprise Zone on the edge of Midsomer Norton next to the Old Mills Batch “volcano” have faced significant opposition — with almost four hundred people submitting objections to the plan.

Bath and North East Somerset Council is currently deciding whether to grant a local development order which would allow companies to build on the proposed site of the business park without the need to get planning permission for a period of twenty years.

The council hopes it could bring up to 1,300 jobs to the town but Angharad Barber, who lives locally and is leading the campaign against the development, said that is more than the unemployment figures for the town.

She said: “This is such an outdated plan. They talked about it in 2007 when there was demand — but that demand has gone.”

Jennifer Lord also lives nearby and thinks that businesses will still prefer other places, such as Chippenham, because of the better transport links.

But she is concerned that any business that does move into the Enterprise Zone will not contribute to the High Street, as they will be based on the edge of town and just use the Tesco.

She said: “There’s so many vacant sites around Paulton, Radstock, and Midsomer Norton. The High Street is full of rather large properties which have been deserted. Surely we can be a bit more imaginative than paving over more fields.”

Ms Barber said: “There’s got to be a more environmentally friendly solution.”

She added that she had seen red kites around the fields which could be developed. But councillor Mark Roper, the council’s cabinet member for Economic Development, Regeneration and Growth, defended the plans.

He said: “The council regularly assesses the local demand for office and industrial space, which shows a low number of empty properties due to the lack of supply in the Somer Valley.”

“Keeping employment local reduces the need for people to travel out of the area for work, which in turn reduces traffic congestion and lowers emissions.”

“The council is committed to delivering 10% biodiversity net gain, including landscape buffer zones around the perimeter of the site and central landscaped attenuation ponds to capture rainfall and reduce flood risk.”

Consultation on the plans, closed in February and saw 399 people lodge objections to the local development order. Thirteen people lodged comments in support of the plans and sixteen people left general comments.

John Wimperis