AT Wednesday‘s planning meeting we were delivered a bombshell.

Having always been assured that it was all (1,600 houses) or nothing, we were told that if both applications were passed but only one came forward it would still go ahead alone.

In no way can this deliver the wider infrastructure needs.

The promoters, having assured us they would provide a through road and place the electric cables underground, now say they cannot, i.e. the housing, not the land, must pay for it.

Objectors presented a clearly argued case but neither the councillors nor officers refuted a single point.

READ MORE: Decision over plans for 1,600 homes in Staplegrove deferred

The officers repeatedly declared there were no reasons for refusal.

Really?

Because the Core Strategy does not protect The Quantocks AONB and SSSI this is a failure of the Core Strategy, not of the arguments for the value and vulnerability of the Quantocks.

Likewise, the Core Strategy is based on building 850 houses per year.

New evidence confirms it at 512 per year.

If the basic figures are wrong, the strategy is wrong and so the argument for granting planning permission is wrong.

Government subsidy distorts the system.

If there must be subsidy, should it not go to cleaning up brownfield sites and not destroying greenfield quality agricultural land?

These are the wrong houses in the wrong place and too expensive for first time buyers who are the ones in housing need.

This is just what DEFRA and the Department for Communities and Local Government do not want.

Taunton Deane has a duty to refuse these applications.

D BRADLEY
Kingston St Mary