Plans for 40 new homes near a working pig farm in Somerset have been refused – for the second time in three months.

Rubix Strategic Ltd. put forward plans in April 2024 for a new development of 40 homes on the B3081 Prestleigh Road in the small village of Evercreech, near Shepton Mallet.

Somerset Council's planning committee east (which handles major applications within the former Mendip area) voted to refuse planning permission in early-August 2025, arguing the development would erode the village's character and lead to an increase in localised flooding.

The plans returned to the same committee on November 4, after the applicant had provided additional information regarding odour from the nearby farm, arguing that the impact on the new residents would be minimal.

But committee members stood by their original decision and threw the plans out for a second time – with one councillor describing the plan as "awful" and "unacceptable".

The site lies on the northern side of Prestleigh Road, within walking distance of the former Greencore factory, where permission for 118 homes, commercial space and a community hub were refused on appeal in July 2024.

The site was previously intended to provide 56 homes and a convenience store, but these proposals – put forward by M7 Planning Ltd. – were withdrawn in June 2023.

Access to the new homes would have been onto Prestleigh Road, with the majority of the properties being congregated near the existing properties on Maesdown Road.

Of the 40 homes planned for the site, 12 would have been affordable – meeting the council's target of 30 per cent affordable housing for any new development of ten homes or more in the former Mendip area.

To prevent any net increase in phosphates within the Somerset Levels and Moors catchment area, local arable land will be taken out of active use, with new woodland being planted near the development site.

The site is not allocated within either the Mendip Local Plan Part I (which was approved in December 2014) or the Mendip Local Plan Part II (which was approved in December 2021 and recently revised following a judicial review).

Fletcher Robinson, a trustee of CPRE Somerset, objected to the plans when the committee convened in Shepton Mallet on November 4.

He said: "We can't find any instance in the UK of a housing estate being approved within 50 metres of a pig farm housing 600 pigs.

"A farmer would be refused permission for a pig farm of any size within 400 metres of housing. Your previous decision should stand.

"If the wind changes direction, which it frequently does, then all houses across the site will be impacted, not just the houses in closest proximity [to the farm]."

Barry O'Leary, a former district councillor who lives in Evercreech, said there had been "a total failure of local consultation" and said the plans amounted to "putting lipstick on a pig".

He added: "The developer is trotting back in, hoping no-one noticed them sneaking onto the pitch after the referee's gone home, trying to change the result.

"If planning worked like that for everyone, chair, we'd all be living in castles.

"The facts haven't changed: the site is still the wrong place for housing development. The infrastructure still isn't there.

"No matter how neatly you slice it, you can't turn this sow's ear into a silk purse."

Paul Davies, who lives on Bridge Close opposite the site, said: "This development could irrevocably jeopardise the pig farm, which has been established there for 60 years – a working farm, maintained to Red Tractor standards, capable of holding 600 pigs.

"There were no pigs on the site when the 'sniff tests' were done. Pigs smell and make noise – I've smelt them and heard them squealing day and night, even during hot summers with no wind."

Councillor Rob Reed (Liberal Democrat, Mendip South) said he was "disappointed" that the plans had come back before the committee in its current form.

He elaborated: "We refused this application, not because we needed additional information about the pigs, but because the pigs were there – it's as simple as that.

"The new odour report before us is flawed – if you take an odour test when there's no pigs there, it's going to pass. It tells us nothing at all.

"These new houses are going to be uninhabitable."

Councillor Claire Sully (who represents the same division) concurred: "I think we need to review how we bring applications back to committee and the notice period.

"We need to preserve our agricultural industry, which has huge challenges. The farmer wants to preserve his business, which was there first."

Councillor Barry Clarke (Conservative, Mendip Central and East) added: "If anyone here went and actually talked to a farmer, and said: 'I'm thinking of buying 80 metres from your farm', I think he would laugh at you.

"The minimum distance you would want to be away is 200 metres. This is most unacceptable – it's an awful application."

After around 90 minutes' debate, the committee voted to refuse permission by 11 votes to one, with two abstentions.

Rubix Strategic Ltd. – which is based in Bristol – has not yet indicated whether it intends to appeal the decision.

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