New homes will be delivered on a key brownfield site in a growing Somerset town – nearly four years after an appeal over its fate was first launched.

Castle Cary (BMI) Ltd. applied in 2018 to redevelop the former BMI complex on the A371 Cumnock Road in Castle Cary to deliver a total of 81 new homes for the town.

South Somerset District Council twice voted to refuse the plans in the summer of 2019 – a decision which was subsequently upheld by the Planning Inspectorate in December 2020 following a public inquiry.

Following a successful high court challenge, a second public inquiry was instituted in November 2021, with hearings originally being set for December 2021 before being pushed back to March 2022 and subsequently delayed again to allow for phosphates mitigation to be agreed.

The Planning Inspectorate has now ruled in the developer's favour – meaning construction on the new homes could begin early in the new year.

The brownfield site is currently surrounded on three sides by existing residential developments on Ansford Road, Cumnock Road and Upper High Street.

The original plans envisioned 70 new homes being built on the brownfield site, with the remaining 11 dwellings being delivered by converting the existing mill buildings.

Planning inspectorate Roger Catchpole visited the site on April 30 and published his final ruling on the Planning Inspectorate's website.

Mr Catchpole was somewhat critical of one element of the proposal, which would see the grade two listed mill building, which dates back to 1851, converted into four homes through "vertical subdivision".

He said: "The previous Inspector found that the vertical subdivision of the mill would fundamentally alter the historic plan form and circulation within the building, and lead to the loss of the three open floors which make a significant contribution to the special interest of the building.

"The appellant accepts that the vertical subdivision would harm the open plan form which 'makes a strong contribution to significance' and has submitted further evidence concerning alternatives.

"The appellant contends that a horizontal scheme would lead to an unacceptable reduction of the already limited headroom, which would adversely affect the living conditions of future occupants and obscure historic joists and floorboards."

Despite this, Mr Catchpole argued that on balance the scheme would improve the appearance of the site and be in keeping with the town's conservation area.

He said: "The scheme would reflect the scale of existing buildings in and around the site, as is apparent from the varied massing and location of the new buildings.

"The sympathetic use of materials, coherent design approach and the stepping down of scale is such that I find no harm would be caused to the setting, as it contributes to the significance, of nearby listed buildings or the conservation area.

"I find significant benefit from the refurbishment and bringing into viable use of the mill and the offices, and significant benefit from the rebuilding of the warehouse and bringing it into viable use.

"There would be moderate benefit from improved public accessibility to the heritage assets that would better reveal their significance, moderate benefit from improvements to the unkempt and degraded setting of the assets, and moderate benefit from the removal of risk of further collapse of the warehouse as well as further deterioration of the mill and the offices."

Mr Catchpole said he was satisfied that there was sufficient mitigation within the designs to ensure "no significant harm" to the local bat population.

To offset any net increase in phosphates from the new homes, the developer will purchase phosphate credits generated from the fallowing of agricultural land elsewhere in the River Brue catchment.

Conditions will also be put in place to ensure none of the new homes can be occupied until the nearby Castle Cary waste water treatment plant has been upgraded by Wessex Water.

In addition to 11 affordable homes within the site, the developer will provide more than £411,000 towards local school places, just over £100,000 towards new play area equipment, more than £61,000 towards changing rooms and just over £17,000 towards youth facilities in the town.

Mr Catchpole concluded: "The location would allow future residents to access local services without the use of private motor vehicles and public transport would be readily accessible from the new homes.

"The site has been derelict for a considerable period of time and its use would promote the more effective use of land to meet the need for homes.

" The benefits of developing this brownfield site and the boost that this would give to the deliverable housing land supply would be considerable."