LAND TO THE NORTH OF THE A38 AND EAST OF DOSTER’S LANE, MONKTON HEATHFIELD
Ainscough Strategic Land invite you to provide your thoughts on the proposed development of up to 225 new homes at Monkton Heathfield.
We would like to hear your comments on our proposal, which can be provided by email or by post.
Ainscough Strategic Land are preparing an outline planning application (with all matters reserved except access) for up to 225 new homes on land to the north of the A38 and east of Doster’s Lane, Monkton Heathfield.
About Ainscough Strategic Land
Ainscough Strategic Land (ASL) are a family-owned business built on the core values of honesty, integrity, and trust. The company specialises in promoting land through the planning system on behalf of, and in partnership with, landowners, for onward sale to housebuilders – facilitating the delivery of high-quality developments which reflect local needs and aspirations.
ASL places strong emphasis on communication and reliability throughout the planning process, ensuring every aspect is carefully considered.
ASL are aware that residents will be keen to understand the proposals in further detail. This website and its content have been designed with this in mind and aim to explain the nature of the proposal and its benefits.
The Site
The site is located to the north east of Monkton Heathfield and south of West Monkton. It measures circa 15.5ha.
The site location and its boundary are identified by the red line on the plans below.
The site is allocated by Somerset Council in their Taunton Deane Borough Council Core Strategy (2012) planning document for residential development. It forms part of the larger Monkton Heathfield New Neighbourhood.
Somerset Council must plan for the right number and type of new homes to meet the requirements of a growing population. The site, which has been identified by the Council to help meet these, will make a positive contribution to deliver much-needed high-quality new homes to the area.
In total, the New Neighbourhood is allocated by the Council to deliver around 4,500 homes alongside commercial, community, and education development, landscaping, and infrastructure improvements.
Land subject to the allocation has, in part, already been approved for development and delivered over the past few years. Other land within the allocation is currently live in the planning process; as is the land to the south and west of our site which is subject to an outline planning application, yet to be determined by Somerset Council.
Separately from our site, the live planning application to the south and west provides for new homes, employment land, a new school, and a mixed-use district centre including mobility hub, community facilities, landscaping, and infrastructure improvements.
It is acknowledged that in reality, the wider allocation will not achieve the high target set by the Council of 4,500 homes for the area. Therefore, it is important to ensure a meaningful contribution is made to local housing supply where possible, particularly in an area with such a shortfall as this. The proposed development will assist in addressing the shortfall that has been identified by Somerset Council. The provision of a deliverable site such as this, which can make a substantive and rapid contribution to recovering the shortfall in housing land supply, and deliver much-needed market and affordable homes, should be given substantial weight in the planning balance.
To this end, Somerset Council support development on our allocated site to help deliver the aspirations of the wider policy allocation. We welcome comments on how this can be achieved, together with our proposals.
The Proposed Development
Having undertaken a significant amount of technical work, we have taken a great deal of care to prepare an indicative plan which relates to local character and context. In this regard, the applicant’s team has been busy carrying out surveys and assessments of the site over the past year to inform the proposed development.
The result of this work is a high-quality landscape and biodiversity-led development which puts landscaping and ecological enhancement at the forefront, positively integrating with the surrounding existing and emerging development, along with the wider countryside which will be unaffected.
The main benefits of the proposed development are as follows:
- Provision of up to 225 new homes with a range of types, designs, and sizes, including 25% affordable housing and 10% bungalow properties.
- New vehicular and pedestrian access from Doster’s Lane.
- New areas of public open space and tree planting, including a community orchard, in addition to retaining most existing trees and hedgerows.
- Children and young persons’ play areas.
- Biodiversity improvement including new planting and features suitable for wildlife.
- A sustainable drainage system.
- A package of measures to deliver modern energy efficient homes which are resilient to the impacts of climate change.
- A sensitive approach to the edges of the site, protecting the amenity of neighbouring homes, and the ecological and historic environment.
An illustrative masterplan is provided below showing the landscape and ecology-led proposal on the site, which includes large areas of public open space for use by future residents and the wider community. This also illustratively shows the layout and areas for new housing on the site and how existing trees and hedgerows can be retained alongside planting of additional foliage.
Technical Evidence
The preparation of the proposals to date has been informed and supported by a comprehensive suite of technical reports, addressing key matters including:
Design and Landscape
- Using a landscape and ecology-led masterplanning approach whereby existing landscape features are retained as robustly as possible, reinforced with new planting to mitigate against any arising impacts upon the landscape, enhancing it at every opportunity.
- Development buffers are incorporated to site boundaries to ensure the amenity of neighbouring houses, and the setting of any heritage assets is appropriately maintained by the proposal.
- Maintaining a substantial green landscaped buffer to the north to integrate with the wider countryside beyond the site which will remain unchanged. This positively responds to the Council’s aspirations for a green necklace at the edges of the wider development policy allocation.
- To create a connected development with paths and routes which provides a layout that is accessible and easy to move through and around, with particular emphasis on pedestrian and cyclist connections to the surrounding area.
- To create a high-quality built environment with a range of energy efficient well-designed new homes located within attractive well-designed streets close to areas of accessible green space.
Access, Transport and Movement
- Ainscough Strategic Land have conducted a thorough appraisal of the existing conditions of the local transport network, and the impacts a development such as this could create. The site is considered a sustainable location for new homes.
- Discussions have already been held with Somerset Council highways officers regarding positioning the vehicular site access off Doster’s Lane. A number of vehicular access options have been considered from both Doster’s Lane and the A38. Through discussions with officers at the Council, their preferred access option is off Doster’s Lane.
- The outline planning application will be accompanied by a Transport Assessment, which will demonstrate the acceptability of the site access and consider the impact of the proposed development upon the local road network.
Ecology and Nature
- A variety of surveys has been undertaken on the site to establish its baseline ecology value and in order to shape the proposals.
- Surveying of the site has included bats owing to its location within a wider Consultation Zone for the Hestercombe House Special Area of Conservation. In this regard, appropriate bat mitigation habitat and dark corridors (which will remain unlit) have informed the design of the proposal.
- Presence of a badger sett has been identified within the site along the boundary. This has further informed the proposal, ensuring a large buffer to the area from any development.
- The full details of all surveys undertaken which have informed the proposal will be included within the outline planning application submission.
- Ecological enhancement will further be delivered on the site as part of the development which will achieve in excess of 10% Biodiversity Net Gain. This will include appropriate new planting such as a wildflower meadow. This will ensure a significant improvement in the biodiversity over and above its existing condition.
Flood Risk and Drainage
- The site is located outside of areas at risk of flooding from rivers and sea and within Flood Zone 1, which means it has a less than 1 in 1,000 annual probability of flooding (low risk).
- Development on this site will not lead to flooding on site or increase the chances of flooding elsewhere.
- The site lies within the surface water catchment of the Somerset Levels and Moors and, as such, will demonstrate Nutrient Neutrality (i.e. no net input of nutrients) as part of the outline planning application.
- The proposals include areas for drainage attenuation, the purpose of which would be to hold surface water run-off from the site and discharge it at greenfield rates. This means that the amount of water running off from the Site would be no more than the current rates, as undeveloped fields, and will ensure that flood risk is not increased elsewhere by the proposed development.
Comprehensive pre-application discussions have been held with Somerset Council officers over the past year which have helped to guide the scheme in a number of ways. The outcome of this process, and the carrying out of supporting technical assessments, is the proposed development we are pleased to now share with local residents.
Once responses to the public consultation have been received and reviewed, any final changes will be made to finalise the planning application for submission to Somerset Council, targeted to be in early 2026. The application will include a comprehensive suite of supporting documents on all relevant matters to assess and demonstrate the acceptability of the proposed development. These will include matters relating to ecology, trees, landscaping, and public open space; design, flood risk, and drainage; archaeology and heritage, site access and transport, nutrients and water resources, sustainability and climate change, noise and socio economics.
Through agreement with Somerset Council, the planning application will be supported by an Environmental Impact Assessment, comprehensively assessing the impact of the proposed development. This includes consideration of surrounding development in the form of a cumulative assessment to ensure the acceptability of the development impact on the area.
Downloads
0847-101-2 Site Location Plan (Aerial)-A0L.pdf
0847-101 Site Location Plan-A0L.pdf
0847-1004 Illustrative Master Plan-A0L
Your Views
Ahead of a formal planning application being submitted to Somerset Council, we would like to hear your comments on our proposals. It is intended that we will submit a formal outline planning application to Somerset Council in early 2026.
Following presentations to West Monkton Parish Council and Creech St Michael Parish Council, we are pleased to share our proposals directly with local residents and invite any comments you wish to make.
Your comments on the proposal can be made via:
Email to: public.consultation@alderking.com;
By post to our office: Alder King Planning Consultancy, Pembroke House, 15 Pembroke Road, Clifton, Bristol BS8 3BA.
If you would like to comment, please respond to us by Friday, 9th January 2026.
Thank you for taking time to consider our development proposals.
We look forward to hearing from you.