The founder of a spoof art award has criticised the design of planned new affordable homes in Wedmore.

Turnip Prize founder Trevor Prideaux has attacked plans by the Acorn Property Group to build 55 new houses in the village south of Cheddar.

Mr Prideaux claims the proposed layout of affordable homes within the Cross Farm site will create “the potential for a ghetto in several areas”, and alleges the developer has “completely ignored” the advice given when outline permission was granted.

Sedgemoor District Council said no final decision has been made on the layout of the development, and that all local views would be taken into account.

Outline planning permission was given to develop the Cross Farm site in 2015, with 24 of the 55 homes intended to be affordable – 20 as affordable rent properties and four as shared ownership homes.

The site lies east of The Borough Mall and just north of the end of Combe Batch Rise.

Mr Prideaux said the new reserved matters application – which specifies the housing mix and layout – “fails to comply” with the conditions laid out by the district council when the previous plans were approved.

He said: “Planning permission was granted with a number of conditions, including that the affordable homes ‘must be undistinguishable in appearance from the open market units on the site, and there shall be no form of gating or separating element’.

“The permission states this is to ‘fulfil an essential need to integrate the market and affordable housing in the interests of community harmony’.”

Mr Prideaux opposed the original plans on the grounds it was development on a greenfield site.

He said he was “resigned” to it being developed and he understood the need for affordable housing in the area.

He said: “I now want to ensure it is for the community’s gain and not just the developer’s.

“Acorn Property Group has submitted its plans for this and it has completely ignored the outline planning stipulations.

“The affordable housing properties have been clustered into two clear areas across the development. The bungalows (for elderly or infirm residents) are at the furthest point from the local amenities – surely they should be located closer to The Borough Mall?

“Affordable housing is so important, particularly for the younger occupants of Wedmore to enable them to stay in the village, if they would like to, when they are older. The only reason this site is being developed is for the affordable housing (and the outright market price properties will subsidise these).”

Mr Prideaux wants the affordable homes to be “pepper-potted” – meaning they are spread out evenly among the market housing within the development.

Otherwise, he claims, there is “the potential for a ghetto in several areas, with some very expensive outright sale homes in other sections where there is no affordable housing.”

Sedgemoor District Council said there was no legal requirement for pepper-potting, but that legal agreement could ensure that the site’s housing was well-integrated.

A spokeswoman said: “This matter is the subject of a current planning application for which no decision has been made.

“In determining the application, of course all comments made by consultees and interested parties will be taken into account alongside the relevant planning policy context, the outline planning consent and the associated S106 legal agreement.

“This includes the need for the development to integrate the open market and affordable housing to avoid the creation of gated and/ or segregated communities.

“The extent of dispersal has to also be balanced against the management needs of those properties and there is no formal requirement for ‘pepper-potting’ within the planning conditions or S106 requirements. Instead the S106 references the need for the ‘affordable housing units to be distributed throughout the development site to achieve a reasonable and practical level of integration’.”

The council said any revisions to the scheme would be subject to further public consultation, and was not able to confirm how soon a final decision would be made.

The plans could be decided in public by the council’s development committee, but only if Wedmore Parish Council’s views are contrary to those of the district’s planning officers.

The Acorn Property Group has declined to comment at this stage.