DAMAGING “group-think” regarding phosphates is holding back genuine progress on unlocking new homes across Somerset, according to one Taunton resident.

Around 12,000 homes across Somerset are being held up following the Dutch N court ruling and the resulting Natural England legal advice, with developers having to provide additional mitigation to prevent any net increase in phosphates on the Somerset Levels and Moors.

Councillor Henry Hobhouse (whose Castle Cary division has seen significant housing growth in the last decade) has claimed that existing mitigation being pursued by Somerset Council is not effective and that thousands of homes could be unlocked merely by Wessex Water’s planned upgrades to waste water treatment plants.

Mr Hobhouse put together a task and finish group in September to further investigate the scientific issues surrounding phosphates and recommend changes to the council’s current approach.

But Taunton resident David Orr has contended that the council remains tied to policy positions which are now out of date, in contrast to its Dorset counterparts.

Mr Orr made statements to this effect when the council’s climate and place scrutiny committee met in Taunton to discuss the crisis on November 11.

He said: “Dorset Council, together with Defra and Natural England, has changed its policy, so that phosphorus mitigation is no longer required in Dorset for the Poole Harbour catchment.

“There is a nutrient baseline for Poole Harbour, so they know where they are and when to stop. There isn’t a nutrient baseline for the Somerset Moors and Levels – which, four years in, is sub-par.

“I understand that the relevant officers were directed to seek with Natural England a cost to get a similar key baseline for Somerset. Where is the progress report for that vital work?”

Under the Levelling Up and Regeneration Act 2023 (known colloquially as LURA), water companies were ordered to upgrade their waste water treatment plants to remove larger quantities of phosphates than was originally permitted.

These upgrades must be implemented by May 2031 and must be applied to all waste water treatment plants which serve a population of 2,000 or more people.

Wessex Water has publicly committed to upgrading all the applicable Somerset plants by April 1, 2030, and has entered into an agreement with the council to implement “stretch permits” at its Langport, Taunton and Wells site which will see additional phosphates removed on top of the LURA requirements.

However, in Dorset, Wessex Water has committed to upgrading all waste plants which serve 1,000 people or more – allowing larger quantities of phosphate to be taken out of the Poole Harbour catchment.

Mr Orr said the council needed to lobby Defra to “level the nutrient playing field” and called for further information on how £9.6m of government funding to mitigate phosphates was being spent.

He said: “Where is the progress report for the Salinity Solutions trial? That trial report was due by October and the funding deadline is next March.

“Many of us had genuine concerns that this technology would not generate economically viable phosphorus credits.

“My abiding impression with regard to nutrient neutrality policy in this council, is that it is dominated by ‘group-think’, and there is an absurd amount of effort going into defending a damaging status quo policy, first formulated four years ago.”

The council’s executive committee confirmed in early-November that £5.6m of the funding provided by the government in December 2023 would be spent on creating new land- or nature-based solutions – including new wetlands on land owned by the council, developers or third parties.

Of the remainder, £3.5m will be dedicated to a number of different project to create “bridging credits” – in other words, providing phosphate mitigation up to 2030 without having to fallow additional agricultural land.

These efforts will include the Salinity Solutions trial, the miscanthus grass trial and “other potential opportunities” to increase supply through new technologies or working with third parties.

The final £1m will be allocated towards upgrading sewage treatment plants near rural council houses in the former Taunton Deane area – a decision confirmed by the executive committee in early-October.

Mr Hobhouse (a frequent critic of the council’s approach to the phosphates issue) recently attended a meeting of the Somerset Catchment Partnership, which has been working with experts at Lancaster University to understand the problem and find effective solutions.

Mr Hobhouse told the committee: “Professor Paul Withers told me [at this event] that the knowledge they had of what was happening on the Levels – not the river catchments going into them – was non-existent, and no work has been done since Natural England’s letter came out in August 2020.

“It’s no good saying we have no technical knowledge – we should have gathered it and dealt with it, and put ourselves in a position where we could acknowledge that we were in charge [of solving this].”

Councillor Martin Dimery (Frome West), who chairs the committee, expressed dismay that the task and finish group had not yet met to thrash out this issue.

He said: “We must get this sorted, it needs to be resolved.”

The committee will hold its next meeting in Taunton on December 20.