CarneySweeney has been working on behalf of C G Fry and Son on its Jurston Fields development since 2011, when we were initially involved in supporting an Enquiry by Design masterplan process. The collaborative approach to the masterplan and Examination in Public representations secured the allocation of the site for up to 650 homes in the 2013 Core Strategy. Following adoption, we drafted a Development Brief for the site that was adopted as a Supplementary Planning Document (SPD) in 2014. We obtained Outline permission for up to 650 dwellings in 2015, followed by Reserved Matters applications for 193 dwellings in 2017 and a further 190 dwellings in 2020. The first phase of the development is complete as pictured below.

Phosphates have presented a challenge for the later phases of the development. In 2020, after the grant of the outline planning permission and approval of Reserved Matters, Natural England issued advice regarding the effects of phosphate pollution on the Somerset Levels and Moors Ramsar Site. As a consequence, the Council refused to discharge conditions that were required before Phase 3 could commence. The matter ultimately proceeded to the Supreme Court, which ruled in favour of C.G. Fry & Son Ltd, finding that the Council could not rely on the subsequently issued phosphate guidance to withhold the discharge of the relevant conditions associated with the earlier planning permission. As a result, Phase 3 has now commenced.

Building on that progress, CarneySweeney has submitted a Reserved Matters application for 267 dwellings relating to the remaining phases of the consented development, together with a separate full planning application for a further 67 dwellings in addition to those already authorised under the outline planning permission.