A major new housing development in Taunton is one step closer to getting underway after plans for two new wetlands were approved.

Taunton Deane Borough Council granted permission in October 2017 for the Staplegrove urban extension between the A358 Pen Elm and Taunton Road – divided into Staplegrove West (713 homes and employment land) and Staplegrove East (915 homes and a new primary school).

Both sections of the development have been repeatedly delayed – first by legal issues surrounding the use of Corkscrew Lane during the construction, then by allocation of funding for the school and spine road, and most recently by the Dutch N case on phosphate levels.

To combat the latter issue, Somerset West and Taunton Council has approved plans by Ptarmigan Staplegrove Ltd. to create two new wetlands to the north of the site, designed to offset phosphates generated by the new homes.

The Staplegrove urban extension is one of three such development areas which will deliver the bulk of Taunton’s new housing over the next two decades.

The other two urban extensions lie in Comeytrowe (also known as Orchard Grove, on the A38 Wellington Road) and Monkton Heathfield (on the A38 between the county town and Bridgwater).

Both of these latter extensions have seen considerable activity, with the council’s planning committee recently approving plans for 55 homes within the latest phase of the Orchard Grove site, and a decision on phase two of the Monkton Heathfield site being expected by the spring of 2023.

Under these latest plans, new wetlands will be created on existing agricultural land to the north of the Staplegrove site – one on Langford Lane in Longfield, and one on Nailsbourne Road in Nailsbourne.

Both wetlands will capture phosphates from the River Tone catchment area, preventing them from flowing into the catchment area of the Somerset Levels and Moors Ramsar site, which is protected by international law.

The wetlands proposals are intended to complement separate plans for a green buffer around the Staplegrove West site, which would allow the first new homes to be built.

Similar wetlands are also being planned in Wellington to unlock a potential employment site along the ‘concrete carriageway’, which connects the town to the M5 at junction 26.

Rod Williams – who represented Staplegrove on Somerset County Council until the local elections in May – laid out residents’ concerns to the district council’s planning committee when it met in Taunton on September 15.

He said: “The principle of wetlands is accepted, but the implementation of the principle in this application does not command public support.

“These two wetlands seem enough to offset only the 173 homes of the first phase of Staplegrove West. On their own, they would offset only 10.6 per cent of the Staplegrove development.

“Does the council plan to create many more wetlands to offset the whole Staplegrove development?  If so, how many and where will they go?

“Without knowing this, it’s as though you are being asked to complete a jigsaw puzzle with only a tenth of the pieces.”

Simon Fox, the council’s major projects officer for planning, clarified that these two wetlands “would in time” provide enough phosphate mitigation for the entirety of the Staplegrove West site – with separate mitigation for Staplegrove East coming forward in a later application.

He said: “This is not part of the jigsaw – this is the jigsaw.”