PLYMOUTH Brethren have applied to build a gospel hall in a grass paddock in Taunton's green wedge area.

Taunton Deane Borough Council planning officers recommend granting conditional approval for the building in Killams Lane.

But councillors will hear objections to the proposals at their meeting next Wednesday (April 5).

Trull Parish Council opposes the plans as they are outside the settlement boundary and inside the Vivary Green Wedge, while Somerset County Council has voice highways concerns.

Letters of objections highlight possible traffic congestion, noise and disturbance, pollution, impact on wildlife and loss of green space.

A number of letters supporting the application say Plymouth Brethren have been searching for a site for 13 years.

An officers' report to councillors says: "It would not give rise to harm in terms of landscape impact, highway safety, wildlife or drainage and is therefore recommended for approval."

Plymouth Brethren is a conservative, low church, non-conformist, Evangelical Christian movement whose history can be traced to Dublin in the late 1820s.