A row of cottages in the parish of Paulton (just outside Midsomer Norton) are set to be “sandwiched” between two industrial zones.

The five fields across the road from the Springfield Buildings, which sit in the parish of Paulton just outside Midsomer Norton, are planned to become the Somer Valley Enterprise Zone, where companies will be able to build without the need for planning permission for 20 years, if a local development order is passed.

Now, another field behind the houses is set to become an industrial estate.

Bath and North East Somerset Council’s planning committee voted on Wednesday, 5th April to grant outline planning permission for the development of the field just across Langley’s Lane from the houses.

Speaking at the meeting, Midsomer Norton North councillor Shaun Hughes warned: “Between the Somer Valley Enterprise Zone and this new development is a row of houses called Springfield [Buildings] that are going to effectively find themselves sandwiched between two new industrial zones.”

Outline planning permission means that only the principle of development for this purpose and how the site will be accessed have been agreed so far, with specifics of the building on the field set to be agreed later at the “reserved matters” stage.

The development acts as an extension of the existing industrial estate off the A362, through which it would be accessed.

Modelling by the council shows that it would add an extra 110 vehicle movements an hour onto the road, with approxiatly 80 vehicles an hour heading into the site each morning and 30 heading out.

Some traffic mitigations are proposed as well as a financial contribution to the roadworks already planned for the Somer Valley Enterprise Zone.

Representing the agents for the application, Chris Dance told the meeting: “This is an allocated site and its bringing forward that principle of development for employment purposes which will create a significant amount of new employment opportunities, which is a key benefit of the scheme.”

But ward councillor for Paulton Liz Hardman, who could not attend the meeting but sent a statement, stated: “I would like to remind you that this site is a greenfield site. It is of the highest quality agricultural land so why build an industrial estate here.”

She added: “Some units on phase one of the industrial estate are empty, which demonstrates that phase two is not needed.”

The site would be used for Class E industry. The case officer for the planning application said: “It is industrial processes but […] that is industrial processes that can be undertaken in an area where its not going to be to the detriment of the residential community, so its not heavy industrial uses.

“Class E is a broader use class category than was originally put on the site allocation when the placemaking plan was written, but we have to work with the use classes that we have now got, so I think that that really is the highest kind of restriction that we could reasonably put on the application.”

Councillors voted to allow the development, but to add conditions restricting the hours the site could be used and its noise levels, and requiring archaeological monitoring of the construction.