Planning news in and around Frome this week:

In Beckington at the Abbey, which is now a private property, on 7 Frome Road, a five day notice has been issued to pollard a Beech tree on site. Under Ref. No: 2022/0304/FDN thee are photos of pockets of decay within the tree and all the details on how it will be treated.

Planners have approved the conversion of the existing second floor loft to create a habitable area at 14 Weston Walk in Frome.

And an application for a detached single house at 24 St Johns Road in Frome (2021/2700/OTA) has been withdrawn.

Approved, details reserved by conditions 6 (Provision of Bat Box) 7 (Supervision of Works) and 8 (Ecology) on planning consent 2020/2359/HSE that is for an extension at Sands Cross Lane in Buckland Dinham.

There is an application in to vary condition 2 (plans list compliance) of planning approval 2021/0836/LBC, which is to build a steel estate boundary fence and re-position the garage at the formerTheobald Arms on the Old Road at Nunney Catch, Frome BA11 4NX Ref. No: 2022/0208/VRC.

In January an agent Galpin Pulman & Will Partnership of Yeovil, successfully applied to change the pub into a single dwelling house (Class C3) with associated internal and external alterations and to build of a detached garage and put up a fence around the property.

An application for details reserved by conditions 17 (Development Exclusion Zone - Fencing), 27 (Site Works - Fencing) on planning consent 2017/1060/FUL at Valley House Lower Works in Mells, has been approved.

No development is good development ?

In case you missed it, in Chilcompton an appeal to build 95 homes on the edge of the village rejected by Mendip planners, has been refused by the planning inspectorate.

The developers had argued that the village needed homes as part of the local plan and they would be able to compensate for any increase demand on the local school.

But in the appeal report, it was calculated that, should it have gone ahead Chilcompton would have seen the biggest increase in housing of any local villages - a 35% increase, significantly more than the guideline figure of 15% under Mendip housing plans.

The plans for homes on land at Hoecroft, in Chilcompton, were initially rejected in 30 July 2021.

The inspectorate visited the village back in December to see how the landscape would be impacted and its reported has been published last week (February 10)

It states : " The proposal would significantly harm the character and appearance of the area, adversely affecting the form of the village and surrounding landscape. It would not comprise a logical extension to the village, being an unduly large, individual estate, detached from its main built-up core. It would be incongruously located, encroaching into the countryside which extends into the heart of the village, eroding its character. "

The three issues were considered :

• whether the proposal complies with the spatial strategy of the development plan;
• the effect of the proposal on the character and appearance of the area,

• whether the services and facilities of the village are able to accommodate the quantum of housing proposed.

The inspectorate noted that the hugely popular, and rated Outstanding local school, St Vigor and St John, was always oversubscribed. The proposed housing could generate around 31 primary age school applications with the school already turning down 18 local children over the past three years.

"So these children, presumably from the village, have to go elsewhere, generating private car journeys and an unsatisfactory situation for the children and their parents."

The original application details and all the appeal rulings can be found under the Mendip planning site, under reference 2021/0421/OTS

You can read our story HERE: about the campaigners of Chilcompton Against Rural Over-development (CARO)