WHAT is there not to like about garden villages and towns?

The word “garden” at the front evokes half remembered nostalgia of unlocked doors, a district nurse on her bicycle, teas at the church fair and children playing happily on long summer holidays.

And just look at the lovely image in the Gazette (January 5) of “how the the development of Staplegrove could look” with a small cluster of houses nestling into the fields with the Quantocks Hills in the distance. Heaven.

Now, let’s look at what is actually being proposed at Staplegrove.

It certainly isn’t a small cluster of houses (with only one car as in the image), but 1,628 houses and each house would have at least 1.5 cars, so one car would more likely be well over 2,000.

Successful garden towns and cities in the past have been holistically planned new settlements where infrastructure investment, particularly in transport, were put in first and the houses would not only incorporate good design and place distinctiveness but also well-built affordable homes for local people. Unfortunately, around Staplegrove and the Kingston Road this is certainly not the case.

As many letters of comments, concerns and objections from residents and statutory consultees have pointed out, the proposals are contrary to a number of Taunton Deane policies and the impact on character would be “high adverse”.

Taunton Deane’s own Landscape Officer (May 31) listed 14 concerns, ranging from the scale of the development to removal of hedgerows and trees; and from not respecting the green wedge to “reducing the buffer between the AONB boundary at Kingston St Mary (Gateway to the AONB) and the urban area of Taunton”.

The Quantocks Hills AONB Service (June 16) has also listed a number of serious concerns and states that there “will be a total change of character from an agricultural to urban / suburban environment which threatens the quality of the landscape that currently offers a comfortable transition between the nationally protected landscape and county town of Taunton”.

Hopefully, the new “garden” status may encourage a rethink and maybe it will give Taunton Deane the opportunity to get the appropriate infrastructure monies needed for a right-sized development.

Virtually everyone wants to see good, appropriate developments, in the right place.

What is proposed at the moment is opportunistic urban sprawl, which no amount of green-washing can cover up.

DAVID LAUSEN
Staplegrove