Carry On Langport!: Oh no you don't...

Kelways fields housing plan thrown out

A committee on South Somerset District Council yesterday voted unanimously against the Persimmon Homes application for 94 new houses on the land opposite the Kelways Inn.

The main grounds for their rejection seem to be that the development is far too large for that site and that the application was "an overdevelopment" of the land.

Many raised concerns about the impact the estate would have on both Huish and Langport and the strain it might put the sewers under.

...and almost all of them spoke against the proposed removal of the towering avenue of beech hedges which goes down through the middle of the plot.

Local people in the public gallery objected to the application too including Langport Town Councillor Cara Naden and businessman Clive Miller.

Mr Miller, like others, believed that the beech hedge could have a connection to the historical Kelways building and the business that thrived there for over a century.

It's likely Persimmon Homes will now appeal or revise its original application...housing developers don't give up that easily.

We believe the company previously did have permisson for a smaller amount of houses there, so it may just re-submit that one.

Either way, this week's district council decision will have put off the bulldozers and bricklayers for at least another 12 months.

Cold comfort I guess, but a small victory in the meantime eh.

- and maybe with enough pressure Persimmon may yet consider a u-turn on the removal of that beech hedge...or even better...put the homes somewhere else and not in such an obvious local green space.