Dozens of new homes will be built on land once earmarked for a new supermarket on the edge of a Somerset village.

Sainsbury’s was granted permission in 2012 to build a new supermarket on the Steart Farm site in Cheddar, located off Wedmore Road.

After this permission expired, the company put forward plans to build up to 60 homes on the site instead – plans which were granted on appeal by the Planning Inspectorate in October 2020.

Keepmoat Homes, which subsequently acquired the site, has now been given the green light by Sedgemoor District Council to deliver 58 new homes on the land, with construction due to get underway early in the new year.

The site lies to the west of the existing Cheddar Business Park, being bordered on the western side by the B3151 Lower New Road.

Access will be from Wedmore Road, with the homes being concentrated in the northern portion of the site and green open space being provided to the south.

Of the 58 homes which will be delivered within the development, 15 will be affordable, with the majority being on the eastern side of the site.

Keepmoat Homes – which also delivered The Parade development off the A38 Bristol Road in Bridgwater – will maintain the western edge of the site as a “wildlife area” to partially offset the impact of the new homes.

A spokesman for the Pegasus Planning Group (representing the developer) said: “The built form has been designed to respond to the local context of Cheddar in order to assimilate itself into the existing village.”

Cheddar can expect significant housing growth over the coming years following the approval of numerous other large developments – including 96 homes on the A371 Upper New Road (approved in January), 60 homes on Helliers’ Lane (approved in May 2021), and 100 homes and a 60-bed care home on the former Yeo Valley site on Axbridge Road (approved in November 2020).

On the other hand, two other sizeable developments near Wedmore Road have already been turned down – comprising 115 homes on the other side of Lower Road (which were refused in May after a four-year wait) and 23 homes on the Steart Bushes site (which were refused in August for a fifth time).

Cheddar residents will also find out later in the autumn whether their village will receive a share of £19.3m from the government’s levelling up fund, which would include funding for improved pedestrian and cycle links between new housing developments and local schools.