A new housing development near the M5 in Somerset could be delivered quicker than intended if a developer wriggles out of a legal commitment.

Bickenhall Consulting Ltd. was granted outline planning permission in November 2019 to build up to 248 homes on Isleport Lane in Highbridge, between the motorway and the town’s main industrial area (including its household waste recycling centre).

As part of the planning permission and associated legal agreements (which were finally signed off in February 2022), the developer promised that no more than 100 of the new homes would be sold or occupied until the Edithmead roundabout – connecting Highbridge to Junction 22 of the M5 – had been improved.

But the site’s new owners, Countryside Partnerships PLC, is attempting to get out of this commitment, claiming the development will not have any major effect on traffic levels to and from the motorway.

If the council approves this change to the legal agreement – and approves the amended plans for the new homes – the Brentwood-based developer would be able to build and sell as many of the new homes as it wished before a single change was made to the motorway junction.

The site lies north of the B3139 Mark Road, which links the town centre to the Bennett Road and Commerce Way industrial areas, and is allocated in the council’s Local Plan, which runs until 2032.

Access to the new homes would be via Isleport Lane, with a new junction being created with the B3139 and a spine road branching off into the site and a new junction with the rest of Isleport Lane being created.

In addition to the new homes, a community hub will be provided in the middle of the site, which could include a number of retail units or a doctors’ surgery.

Under the outline planning permission, no more than 100 of the new dwellings may be “occupied or brought into use” unless either the Edithmead roundabout improvement scheme has been completed in full or an alternative form of mitigation has been agreed.

Somerset County Council published details of an improvement scheme in August 2021 as part of a much larger programme, in partnership with North Somerset Council, to upgrade the A38 between Highbridge and Bristol Airport.

The county council has committed £1.5M towards the schemes in its area, including the conversion of the Edithmead roundabout into a signalised ‘throughabout’ to improve traffic flow between the town centre and the M5.

Since the outline permission was granted, Countryside Partnership has commissioned a new survey which demonstrates that the new development would not significantly impact the Edithmead roundabout – meaning the original condition is not required.

A spokesman for Vectos (representing the developer), said: “Since the planning application was granted further transport modelling work has been undertaken to assess the impact of the development on the M5 mainline carriageway.

“This work identifies that the development would not cause vehicle queues to extend onto the M5 mainline carriageway.

“Overall, the introduction of the development traffic is likely to have a modest impact on queue levels at the Edithmead junction.”

Countryside Partnership is currently in the early stage of constructing the Strawberry Grange development, comprising 260 new homes on Bower Lane in Bridgwater and the delivery of a new roundabout to link the homes to the A372 Westonzoyland Road.

The district council is expected to make a decision on the amended proposals for the Isleport site later in the year.