Decision on 67 houses near Chard care home delayed

Mr R. & Mrs C. Blackburn submitted outline plans in December 2023 to build new homes east of the Gillingham Grange care home, with a new access onto the A358 Furnham Road.

Revised proposals for the development were put forward in August 2025, which included a strip between the care home and the new houses being set aside to deliver a future section of the long-awaited Chard eastern relief road (ERR).

Somerset Council's planning committee south (which handles major applications within the former South Somerset area) was due to meet in Yeovil on Tuesday afternoon (March 17) to discuss the plans, with officers recommending that permission be granted.

But the meeting was cancelled at the eleventh hour, with officers later confirming there were outstanding legal issues with the application.

Revised plans for 67 homes on the A358 Furnham Road in Chard (Image: Greenslade Taylor Hunt)

Of the 67 homes planned for the site, 23 will be affordable - narrowly missing the council's target of 35 per cent affordable homes for any new development of ten homes or more in the former South Somerset area.

A cycle link will be provided onto Chaffcombe Road, providing a straightforward onward connection to Touches Lane (which may be taken into a 'green lane' following a public consultation) and the Stop Line Way leading into the town centre.

In addition to the affordable homes, the development will provide more than £1.1m for local education - comprising more than £187,000 for early years provision, just over £599,000 for primary education (which may be focussed on Avishayes Community Primary School), nearly £302,000 for improvements to Holyrood Academy and more than £38,000 for special needs provision.

On top of this, nearly £28,000 will be contributed towards improvements at Chard's two GP surgeries and £50,000 will be provided towards resurfacing paths around the Chard Reservoir nature reserve.

The site lies within the wider River Parrett catchment, meaning that additional mitigation must be secured to prevent any new increase in phosphates on the Somerset Levels and Moors.

To mitigate the new homes, a number of existing septic tanks near the site will be upgraded into package treatment plans, which utilise chemical dosing to remove higher quantities of phosphates at the source.

A spokesperson for Greenslade Taylor Hunt (representing the couple) said: "The proposed layout has been created to ensure that there will be no undue overlooking or loss of privacy to any of the proposed dwellings.

"Moreover, the siting of the public play space has been carefully designed to ensure it is overlooked by the adjacent dwellings to afford users a feeling of safety and will also as a way of reducing the risk of anti-social behaviour from occurring."

The ERR has been an aspiration of Somerset planning officers for decades, and is intended to take pressure off the convent link junction in the town centre (where the A30 and A358 meet) and enable the delivery of new homes within the Chard eastern development area (CEDA).

To date, only one section of the ERR has been delivered – a short stretch between the A30 and Chard Reservoir as part of the Oaklands development of 78 homes, which was completed in 2022.

Planned site of 67 homes on the A358 Furnham Road, seen from Chaffcombe Road (Image: Daniel Mumby)

More detailed proposals a further section of the ERR near the A30 Crewkerne Road are expected to be brought forward by Gladman Developments in due course, after the company secured outline planning permission in January to deliver 230 new homes.

The council confirmed that the meeting had been pulled because the legal agreement surrounding the site (known as a Section 106 agreement) had not yet been finalised.

A spokesperson said: "The planning committee south meeting was cancelled because there is still work to do on the Section 106 legal agreement for Welcome Home Farm at Hornsbury Hill.

"It is therefore not ready to be determined by committee."

The next meeting of the planning committee south is scheduled to take place in Yeovil on Tuesday, April 21 at 2pm.