CONTROVERSIAL plans to build nine houses in the centre of Ilminster were withdrawn last week.

Outline permission was given in 2005 for nine two-storey terraced houses behind Ditton Street Garage but details of the scheme were still to be agreed.

Last month, Ilminster Town Council reiterated a concern shared by several Ditton Street residents that a revised scheme for nine houses - which was officially withdrawn on Friday - had not addressed concerns over parking.

Some residents wrote to the planning authority to register their objections.

One resident, C.J.Wright, said: "You have to be joking!

"Car parking in this area is a nightmare. Residents who already live here don't have enough space to keep their own cars.

"Visitors and workmen to our houses have nowhere at all to park. How will this improve with extra housing?"

Another resident, S.Partridge, said: "There is no mention of parking and there is a serious lack of parking in this area.

"Do we really need houses there? I can think of better places to put houses."

M.Mitchell, also of Ditton Street, said: "At peak times the road is already very dangerous - to add more traffic to the garage entrance is ridiculous and extremely dangerous."

Alan West, of The Heights, pointed out the potential difficulties faced by emergency services accessing the site.

But in a letter to the planning authority, architect Brian Cocks, the agent for the development, said: "The pedestrian access shown on the site plan is identical to that shown and approved at the outline stage and the layout of the houses on the site and positions of windows comply very much with the illustrative scheme previously submitted and the conditions of the outline approval."

Mr Cocks was unavailable for comment as the News went to press.

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