Key design features

This development will create jobs, generate council tax revenue, and help make a dent in the housing waiting list in West Somerset. Data from Persimmon’s sites also shows that a significant majority of our customers are local to the areas in which we build, demonstrating that local people are the main beneficiaries of new homes, with new infrastructure and financial contributions helping the wider community. Persimmon has also donated to local organisations and part of its commitment to leaving a positive and lasting legacy in the area.

A Section 106 agreement with the local planning authority, which will be agreed as part of the planning process, will yield significant funding for local services. This could include public and active transport provision, financial contributions towards health and education, and sporting facilities for instance. Recommendations on where monies should go can be made as part of the process, including local councillors.

We’re proud of our record in supporting local first-time buyers, families and young people to buy their own home. Our average selling price is more than 20% below the UK national average, while around 50% of our private sales have been to first-time buyers over the last two years. The proposed scheme’s housing mix will vary in size, style, type and tenure. All homes meet both national accessibility and space standards.

There are over 10,000 people on Somerset’s housing waiting list, 3,175 are in the West, more than the other three areas. Our application reserves a significant proportion of the development for a local housing association partner, to help alleviate pressure on the Council, give local people the housing they need, and prevent homelessness.

Persimmon is proud that its sales data demonstrates that majority of our homes are bought by people who live near our sites, including those in Somerset. Data from the latest phase at our nearby Hartnells Farm site in Monkton Heathfield shows that two-thirds of our customers there were from the TA postcode area.

Our developments help alleviate the housing pressure in the areas in which we build, so serve people in the locality. Those from outside the area who purchase one of our homes have the potential to bring benefits to the area. They may be the dentist, doctor, or teacher the area needs or establish a thriving business, providing valuable goods or services as well as employment opportunities.

GE Consulting has been carrying out ecological and arboricultural surveys on the site since April 2023 and the survey work is ongoing. The survey work will inform an appropriate ecological mitigation and enhancement strategy for the site to ensure the development results in a net gain in biodiversity.

The following is a list of surveys that have been undertaken so far: arboricultural, bat activity and statics, breeding birds, rivers biodiversity net gain, dormice, great crested newt DNA and habitat suitability access, riparian mammal, and preliminary ecological appraisal. The scheme will go through a Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) assessment, providing the developer with the means to identify ways to enhance local biodiversity.

The Site is within the catchment of the Somerset Levels and Moors Ramsar site. As such there will be a strategy designed to mitigate excess nutrient discharge, ensuring there is no net increase in nutrient pollution to the designation as a result of the scheme. Additionally, plans will aim to retain the stream and wooded corridor, along with the majority of hedgerows and trees.

The scheme for the site contains a large amount of green space which will be used for both recreation and new habitat creation with a range of proposed habitats including new hedgerows, wildflower grassland, mixed scrub, and new trees.

Understanding that the green wedge between Rockwell Green and Wellington is important to local residents, the plans will maintain this through keeping status of some land as green open space, keeping a natural buffer between the two settlements.

The primary focus of the access strategy for the proposed development is to enable and encourage residents of the site to use active travel and non-car modes of transport to reach the range of great local facilities located in around Rockwell Green and Wellington wherever possible.  To this end, we will be prioritising opportunities for walking and cycling within our proposals as the most sustainable forms of travel, whilst also considering access to the existing bus services in the vicinity as well as the new railway station anticipated to open in late 2025.

Through this focus and prioritisation of sustainable travel modes, we hope to manage the vehicle trip generation of the proposed development to levels which can be safely accommodated by the existing highway network, without the need to deliver significant or disruptive infrastructure schemes.

Vehicular access to the development is proposed to be delivered via a simple priority junction with the A38 to the south, which will also feature a right turn lane for traffic turning into the site.  Another key element of access strategy is to downgrade Popes Lane, preventing through movements between the A38 and the centre of Rockwell Green. Although we understand this is a popular shortcut for locals, it is not suitable for the level of traffic it now carries, resulting in a number of accidents over recent years.

Although the closure of Popes Lane will mean that drivers who currently use this route will need to divert via the Perry Elm Roundabout, this is a much safer and more appropriate route and will only add around one or two minutes to an average journey. It will still be accessible at the north and south ends to residents of properties at either end.

With all but the traffic associated directly with residents living in and around Popes Lane removed, the road will become a route open to all local residents for active travel. Existing residents on the northern part of Pope’s Lane will also benefit from being able to enjoy much lower levels of traffic past their homes, making it a safer and more enjoyable road environment.

Our proposed access strategy also includes a number of small, localised upgrades, likely to include crossing improvements and improved lighting to make routes to key destinations safer and easier to use.

As part of its commitment to leaving a positive and lasting legacy in the areas in which Persimmon develops, we will reserve a proportion of the development for a local housing association to help address housing need in the area. There are over 10,200 people on Somerset’s housing waiting list, with over 3,100 of these being in the west of the county. This development will help alleviate this issue, lowering costs for local authority and ensuring more people can live in a stable home. In accordance with local planning policy, the proportion of the development allocated for such use will be 25%, with a mixture of tenures to be confirmed.

We have engaged with Somerset Council officers and have met with South West Design Review Panel and Wellington Town Council, on which both the division’s Somerset councillors sit. In addition to publicising this website, we will also arrange for an in-person engagement event, allowing local people to look at the plans and discuss them with Persimmon and its consultants on the scheme. This provides an opportunity for valuable feedback that can help shape what the development could look like.