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Search the Public Notice PortalConstruction work on 33 new affordable homes in a growing Somerset village can begin later this year after legal agreements were finally signed off.
Mendip District Council entered into a partnership with Aster Housing in November 2020 to deliver up to 160 low-cost homes across five different sites in Frome, Glastonbury, Shepton Mallet and Street.
Aster Housing (which is based in Devizes in Wiltshire) submitted plans in November 2021 to build 33 new homes on Portland Road in Street, next door to the village’s cemetery.
Somerset Council (which replaced the district council in April 2023) gave these plans the green light in June 2025, with its planning committee east voting to push the scheme forward by a comfortable margin.
The legal agreements between the council and Aster have now finally been signed off almost a year later - with local councillor Liz Leyshon expressing hope on Tuesday (April 7) that "we'll have spades in the ground very soon".
The site lies to the west of the existing cemetery and south of the village’s substation, being bordered by Cemetery Lane and the existing homes on Portland Drive.
Due to the narrowness of Cemetery Lane, the new development will be accessed from a new entrance on Portland Drive, not far from the existing T-junction.
The site is allocated within the council’s Mendip Local Plan Part II (which was revised in late-2025 following a judicial review) to deliver a minimum of 32 new homes.
The new homes will range from one-bedroom flats to three-bedroom houses, with every property being offered as either social rent or intermediate rent (the latter being up to 80 per cent of local market value).
The development will also provide just over £45,000 towards improving public open spaces and play equipment, which will be focussed on Woods Batch Park.
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The park is one of many green spaces now managed by Street Parish Council under a devolution deal, and will provide the main pedestrian access between the new homes and local facilities (with pedestrians and cyclists shortly being able to take advantage of improved active travel links along the A39 Westway).
A decision on the plans was been significantly delayed by the ongoing phosphates crisis, with developers having to secure additional mitigation to prevent any net increase in phosphates on the Somerset Levels and Moors.
To offset these new homes, Aster will purchase phosphate credits generated by the removal of cattle from Manor Farm in Prestleigh, a short distance from the Bath and West Showground.
Councillor Liz Leyshon (whose Street division includes the site) spoke positively about the development when the council's planning committee east voted on Tuesday (April 7) to approve a separate development of 65 homes on Moorland Road.
She said: "When I was a Mendip district councillor, I was working on social housing projects, and this [Moorland Road] is one of three sites we looked at in Street.
"We ultimately concentrated our efforts on Cemetery Lane, where I'm really hopeful we'll have spades in the ground very soon.
"Every time I walk down the high street, I am asked, particularly by young people, when there will be housing in Street that they can actually afford, either to rent or to buy."
Planning officer Jennifer Alvis concurred that the development would "help address the council’s shortage of housing land" within the former Mendip district and would "provide sustainable access to a range of facilities within the settlement".
She added: "The proposal would secure economic benefits for the duration of the construction phase, and also through the increase in population and the consequent use of local businesses and services in the locality.
"The harm identified would not significantly and demonstrably outweigh the benefits in this case, and the proposal is considered to constitute sustainable development."
Aster is expected to begin construction at the development site before the end of the year, meaning the first homes could be offered to bidders on the Homefinder Somerset housing register by mid-2027.
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