MORE than a dozen new holiday cabins will be built near a service station on the M5 – on land which used to be a landfill site.

The Rookery Manor spa and wedding venue lies just north of the Sedgemoor services between junctions 22 (Highbridge) and 21 (Weston-super-Mare).

The venue already provides holiday accommodation within its boundary, with 15 existing log cabins having been constructed at the southern end of the site.

Sedgemoor District Council has now ruled a further 14 cabins can be built on-site – despite concerns about the land and traffic through the local villages.

East Brent Parish Council published its concerns before a meeting of the district council’s development committee on October 13.

Parish clerk Jim Murray said: “With all the earthworks being carried out on site creating various bunds, we would like to ask for the environmental authority to be contacted.

“We have concerns about all the soil movement, because the area was, up to the last ten years or so, a landfill site.

“We feel that a traffic management survey should be carried out as to the effects on the Edingworth Road and at the junction with the A370.”

Mark Jelbert, who lives on Edingworth Road, described the cabins as “creeping development”, alleging that some of the cabins were being used as personal residences rather than as holiday lets.

He added: “There is an ever-increasing volume of traffic on a road recently acknowledged by Somerset County Council’s highways department to suffer from speeding and an increase of incidents and accidents.

“The increase in additional speed limit signage and road markings are now pending, which suggests traffic flows should be reduced rather than encouraged.

“There are also no footpaths, either existing or feasible on Edingworth Road.”

The county council – which is responsible for highway matters – did not lodge a formal objection to the plans, arguing it was “unlikely to have an adverse impact” on the local road network.

The district council’s environmental health team said it had no concerns about the land being contaminated, either by landfill or subsequent agricultural use.

Planning officer Liam Evans said: “The site will not be prominent from the motorway, and it is not considered that the cabins would be overly intrusive within the countryside, given the limited scale and the presence of other structures and commercial development along this stretch of the M5, including the nearby service station.

“The cabins will be positioned closely to those previously approved and will not appear isolated or detached from the site, ensuring that they will only be seen in context with the existing tourism site.”

The committee voted to approve the plans after a short debate.