TAUNTON’S roads will be unable to cope with hundreds of children being bussed across town to school if 2,000 homes are built at Comeytrowe and Trull, it is claimed.

Comeytrowe Parish Council chairman Brian Larcombe said the area’s only secondary school, The Castle, is already oversubscribed and developments in Bishop’s Hull, Norton Fitzwarren and Silk Mills will increase demand for places.

He added: “Daily travel to the other schools in the north and east sides is simply not credible given the problems of routing across town and the congestion at Compass Hill and the streets beyond.”

The council has consistently opposed the proposals, which were recently submitted to Taunton Deane Council as an outline planning application Mr Larcombe, while accepting some homes must be built in the area, said it makes more sense to construct the bulk of new houses on the south-east of Taunton, where improvements to the A358 and a new employment site are in the pipeline.

He added: “Comeytrowe Parish Council is concerned at the added problems for those wishing to access Musgrove Park Hospital, Somerset College and County Hall from all parts of Taunton made worse as the congestion grows - the Northern Inner Relief Road and Tangier Inner Relief Road make no contribution to lessening the problem as they will be accessed after the bottlenecks.

“Taunton also has well-known flooding issues and the location of the application has large low-lying land which holds water and has streams which run towards the town centre to meet the Tone, through residential areas which already flood.

“While Taunton Deane has announced plans for flood prevention attenuation these are in other parts of the Deane and not on the water courses within the Trull Comeytrowe areas.

“Comeytrowe Parish Council believes rainwater run-off from an additional 2,000 houses will only make the risk of flooding significantly worse.”

Mr Larcombe believes the Deane should not approve any plans until it has completed a review of its core strategy, which outlines where development could take place.

He is urging people to send their views to Taunton District Council before the deadline of Monday, February 16.

A spokesman for the consortium that submitted the plans told the County Gazette last week that the development would be “complementary to the adjacent communities and sustainably connected to Taunton town centre”.