Next step in bid for up to 200 Keynsham homes

AN OUTLINE planning application is to be submitted for up to 200 new homes on green-belt land west of Charlton Road in Keynsham.

Persimmon Homes Severn Valley is seeking permission from Bath & North East Somerset Council for the development.

As previously reported by the Voice, B&NES has ruled that an environmental impact assessment (EIA) must be submitted for the proposals.

Nexus, the agent acting for the housebuilder, had argued that the scheme would not cause any “unacceptable” landscape and visual harm.

But B&NES Council decided that the development was likely to have significant environmental effects – particularly concerning landscape and transport – in view of other potential housing developments to the north and south-east of the site.

Independent B&NES councillor Alan Hale wrote to the council expressing his opposition to the proposals when they were first revealed in the autumn of last year.

He said Charlton Road was already over-burdened with traffic and that the extra vehicles generated by the proposed development would make matters worse.

Although there are no detailed proposals at this stage, it is envisaged that 45% of the new homes would be “affordable”.

Two access roads are proposed – one from the existing three-arm Charlton Road/Linnet Way roundabout and another about 25 metres north of the Aesop Drive junction.

The development would have open green spaces, allotments, a community orchard, equipped play areas and an informal kick-about area to the south-west of the site.

Construction would take between one to two years.

Land to the west of Charlton Road has already been earmarked for potential new housing development in B&NES Council’s draft Local Plan, which has undergone a public consultation and is due to be formally adopted in its final version this spring.