A proposal to build a housing estate on the edge of Paulton is once again going before the Council — two months after it was sent back to the developers in the first test of new green planning rules.

Housing association LiveWest wants to build a 72-home development next to other new builds on the old print works site in Paulton.

The plans for the houses off Oxleaze Way went before Bath and North East Somerset Council’s planning committee in February, but Councillors voted to send the plans back to the developers due to two key concerns.

Duncan Hounsell argued that the development was not compliant with the Council’s new Local Plan Partial Update, which set out new rules requiring new housing developments to be net-zero. He said it would be “perverse” not to apply these rules to the first development discussed since they were introduced.

Meanwhile, other councillors objected to the developer’s request that two conditions be removed which meant that building work could not start until a nearby roundabout and nursery had been built. LiveWest said that if the conditions were not removed, only 30% of the houses could be affordable housing, instead of a planned 100%.

Councillor Shaun Hughes said: “To me neither of those scenarios are acceptable; clearly, the conditions are there for a reason.”

After a deferral of two months, the planning application is now due to come back to the planning committee on Wednesday April 26.

LiveWest are now proposing to use environmentally friendly air source heat pumps instead of gas boilers to provide heating and hot water, to use triple glazed windows to improve energy efficiency, and to increase the number of solar panels.

A council report on the updated plans said: “The revised sustainability measures will ensure that the proposed dwellings meet the target for space heating […] and include on-site renewable energy generation equipment to fully offset predicted energy use, achieving zero operational emissions in accordance with […] the Local Plan Partial Update.”

The report also stated that work had progressed on delivering both the roundabout and the nursery with the landowners responsible, and conditions are no longer seen to be an issue. Highways agreements are set to be entered into for the planned roundabout on Paulton Road (B3355) and Oxleaze Way imminently, and the landowner of the site for the proposed nursery has made a legal commitment to deliver the nursery by April 2025.

Bath and North East Somerset Council’s planning committee will meet at 10am in the Guildhall in Bath on April 26.

John Wimperis