A major housing development in Chard could still go ahead despite district councillors voting to throw out the plans.

Persimmon Homes South West has applied for permission to build 315 new homes between the B3162 Forton Road and the A358 Tatworth Road.

South Somerset District Council’s area west committee voted to reject the plans at a packed meeting held in Chard on Wednesday evening (June 20).

But the development could still be approved by the council’s regulation committee – which contains no Chard ward members and which will meet in a month’s time.

At a well-attended, often fractious meeting at The Guildhall, numerous members of the public spoke against the plans.

Such was the strength of feeling that councillor Val Keitch, who chairs the committee, twice had to warn residents when they heckled the planning officer during his report.

Barry Burton said the plans had to be considered in relation to development elsewhere on Forton Road.

Gladman Developments was awarded outline planning permission to build 200 homes to the west of the Persimmon site in 2017. The company has since sold the site to Kier Homes South West, with a revised application being considered by the council.

Mr Burton said: “Surely anyone with common sense would agree that you must take the other development into consideration – you must consider the effect of 500-plus houses, not 300.”

Lee Wells, who lives on the site boundary, compared the designs of the new homes to “Colditz” and raised concerns about flooding in the area.

He said: “If we get heavy rain, it’s particularly bad on the boundary – it’s like a stream, it floods out onto Forton Road. Chard deserves better.”

Tracey Berry highlighted the existing pressure on local services, claiming that her husband could not get an appointment with his GP until July.

She added: “We keep talking about how rubbish these plans are and are getting ignored.

“It’s completely out of character [with the area]. I think it’s time people took notice of the town council, because they live here.”

Both Chard Town Council and Tatworth and Forton Parish Council have  consistently objected to the plans.

District councillor Andrew Turpin said that he was “appalled” by the plans, singling out the spine road running through the site for special treatment.

Under the proposals, the new road will run east to west from a roundabout on the A358, with no access from Forton Road.

Once other parts of the Chard Eastern Development Area (CEDA) have been built, this spine road will form part of the ‘southern distributor road’, which will connect the A358 to the eastern end of the A30 and take traffic away from the town centre.

Mr Turpin said: “What I’ve been hearing tonight appals me – that this spine road is going to be adopted at a later date as the distributor road.

“It’s just appalling. The recreational areas [of the site] are divided by the spine road – that’s not acceptable. I think this needs to be re-assessed and re-appraised.”

Councillor Martin Wale agreed, stating: “In the matter of the road, it is obvious that we are going against our own Local Plan here. This is piecemeal, frankly, and it’s not acceptable.”

Under the council’s Local Plan, development to the east of Chard was intended to deliver more than 3,200 homes by 2028, along with two new primary schools, 19 hectares of employment land and new roads.

Councillor Garry Shortland claimed that Avishayes Primary School would be the only school in the town which could accept any new pupils, and that there would be “no safe route” to walk there from the new development.

Councillor Dave Bulmer said that Chard’s roads were already operating “at capacity”, and that an additional 500 homes from the two sites on Forton Road would lead to “a significant increase” in traffic.

He added: “The relief road is very important to this town. It must be made to happen before we get this significant development.

“I cannot accept this plan as it is at the moment – we need to revisit the whole thing. If it’s not done, Chard is going to suffer – future residents as well as existing residents.”

Councillor Ric Pallister said Persimmon had “not honoured its promises” – but he warned that there would be very few grounds for refusing the plans which could not be overturned, either by the Planning Inspectorate (if the developer appealed) or by the regulation committee.

Since March this year, all major applications – those for ten or more homes – have been “two-starred” by the council.

This means if the area committee (in this case, area west) votes against the plans, the final decision will be made by the regulation committee, which is made up of 12 ward members drawn equally from all four district areas.

Mr Pallister said: “I don’t think the design is good enough – I never have, and Persimmon knows that. But if it sells in Leeds, if it sells in Gateshead, and if it sells in Exeter, then our defence falls.

“The southern distributor road was the key to CEDA – without it, CEDA doesn’t work. But it is almost impossible to demand that it be put in first because of the cost.

“We have to demonstrate to the government that we can build lots more houses before they will forward fund infrastructure.”

Mr Pallister also clarified the future of the site would not impact on the plans to regenerate the town centre, which were unveiled at a public consultation on Saturday (June 16).

After more than an hour of deliberation, the committee voted to recommend that the plans be refused by a margin of eight to zero. Three councillors, including Mr Pallister, abstained.

The plans will be considered by the regulation committee on July 17 at the council’s Brympton Way headquarters in Yeovil, with the meeting due to start at 10am. The public are welcome to attend.