Plans to build 200 homes, a doctors’ surgery and shops near Weston have been rejected by North Somerset Council, but the landowners are not giving up.

Landowners who hope to build the hundreds of homes on the fields at the front of Bleadon village, off the A370, have had their plans refused.

The council rejected the application, saying it is an ‘unsustainable’ location.

In the refusal, the council said: “It fails to have regard to the requirement that residential development needs, at least, to be within the boundary of the village.

“The development would therefore generate demand for local services and employment opportunities on a scale which cannot be met without prejudice to other policies in the development plan, and these services and facilities are not regarded as readily accessible from the site by means other than the private car.”

The council also said the development would ‘fail to make a positive visual contribution to the quality of the local environment’ and it would not ‘respect’ nor ‘enhance’ the appearance of the village.

The application had planned for highways safety improvements on the main road leading into and out of Weston but those living in the village urged the council to vote against the plans.

The council’s planning inspector raised a number of issues with the site, including the presence of bats, dormice and great-crested newts as well as the lack of improvements to pavements and cycle-ways.

The application was not well received by villagers either, with more than 340 commenting on the plans, with most objecting.

Sutherland Property and Legal Services, the planning consultant for the landowners, has said it will take ‘future action’ to get planning permission for the development.

The would-be developers have said they are ‘determined’ to take the matter to appeal.

A spokesman for Sutherland Property and Legal Services said: “North Somerset needs housing, now and for the future and we will not be delayed in taking forward appropriate development to secure Bleadon’s future as a thriving village.”

To view the application in more detail, search 17/P/5545/OUT in the council’s online planning portal.