100 signatures reached
To: Local residents and councillors
Stop the developers attempt to overturn August planning refusal at Prestleigh Road
Stop the Developer’s Attempt to Overturn Evercreech’s Planning Decision at Prestleigh Road
In August, Somerset Council’s planning committee made the right decision to refuse a development proposal on Prestleigh Road, Evercreech. The plan would have put the wrong type of houses in the wrong place, threatening the landscape, the village boundaries, and the character of our community.
Now, just months later, the developer has added a couple of new documents to their original plan — and the planning officer appears to be fast-tracking it back to the committee. This is highly unusual and risks undermining public trust in the planning process.
The original refusal was well justified, and if anything, further and stronger reasons for refusal have since emerged. It is unacceptable for developers to keep resubmitting applications until they get the answer they want — that’s not how local democracy should work.
We, the undersigned, call on Somerset Council to:
- Reject any attempt to bring this application back prematurely, unless there are clear and material changes to justify it.
- Defend the integrity of the August decision and the authority of the planning committee.
- Protect Evercreech’s village boundaries, countryside, and landscape from inappropriate development.
Planning decisions should be made once, fairly, and transparently — not rewritten behind closed doors.
✍️ Please sign and share this petition to ensure Evercreech’s voice is heard and respected.
Why is this important?
⚠️ Shock planning return for Our Village?! 🏡❌
I’m honestly baffled 😳 to see this planning application back on Somerset Council’s table. Not often that happens — usually, once it’s gone through an officer’s report, that’s it. So why now?
Here’s the kicker: it’s an outline application 😡. That means:
• No actual houses need to be built yet 🏚️
• They just get to change the principle of the land from agricultural ➡️ housing 🌾➡🏠
• And it could push our village boundaries further out 🚧
Meanwhile, there’s plenty of land already available ✅ — old factory sites, brownfield plots, areas in the local plan. We don’t need to eat up more countryside just to satisfy developers’ profits 💸.
Also, I’m incredibly puzzled .. 🤷♂️why is there no new officers report or any assessment and why has gone directly to planning board
From what I can see, this has all the same problems as the last plan:
• Wrong type of housing ❌
• Wrong location ❌
• Minimal benefits to the village ❌
And here’s a huge problem: we STILL don’t even have a secondary school locally 🏫. Children would continue to be forced onto circular bus routes to Shepton Mallet or Castle Cary 🚍💨, and those additional transport needs are often ignored. This isn’t just inconvenient — it’s a real community failure.
And don’t get me started on developer 💰💰💰 contributions… supposedly to help the community, but Somerset Council has one of the worst records for making developers actually pay up 💀. “Oh, they can’t meet their profit margin” 💸… and the council rolls over. Seriously? 😤
We need homes, yes. But we need:
✅ Affordable homes
✅ Properly designed homes
✅ Homes in the right places
Not another cookie-cutter sprawl ruining our village and our community 😡
Perhaps this is yet another incompetent error administration? By who ? The developer ‘chancing it”.. someone else ? 🕵️🪽🐷🐖🪽- I mean given it is adjacent to a former pig farm perhaps flying pigs are as likely!
If you care about our village, this is the kind of thing we can’t let slip through. Speak up, comment, and ask questions before it’s too late 🗣️✊
I’m honestly baffled 😳 to see this planning application back on Somerset Council’s table. Not often that happens — usually, once it’s gone through an officer’s report, that’s it. So why now?
Here’s the kicker: it’s an outline application 😡. That means:
• No actual houses need to be built yet 🏚️
• They just get to change the principle of the land from agricultural ➡️ housing 🌾➡🏠
• And it could push our village boundaries further out 🚧
Meanwhile, there’s plenty of land already available ✅ — old factory sites, brownfield plots, areas in the local plan. We don’t need to eat up more countryside just to satisfy developers’ profits 💸.
Also, I’m incredibly puzzled .. 🤷♂️why is there no new officers report or any assessment and why has gone directly to planning board
From what I can see, this has all the same problems as the last plan:
• Wrong type of housing ❌
• Wrong location ❌
• Minimal benefits to the village ❌
And here’s a huge problem: we STILL don’t even have a secondary school locally 🏫. Children would continue to be forced onto circular bus routes to Shepton Mallet or Castle Cary 🚍💨, and those additional transport needs are often ignored. This isn’t just inconvenient — it’s a real community failure.
And don’t get me started on developer 💰💰💰 contributions… supposedly to help the community, but Somerset Council has one of the worst records for making developers actually pay up 💀. “Oh, they can’t meet their profit margin” 💸… and the council rolls over. Seriously? 😤
We need homes, yes. But we need:
✅ Affordable homes
✅ Properly designed homes
✅ Homes in the right places
Not another cookie-cutter sprawl ruining our village and our community 😡
Perhaps this is yet another incompetent error administration? By who ? The developer ‘chancing it”.. someone else ? 🕵️🪽🐷🐖🪽- I mean given it is adjacent to a former pig farm perhaps flying pigs are as likely!
If you care about our village, this is the kind of thing we can’t let slip through. Speak up, comment, and ask questions before it’s too late 🗣️✊
