Goes with a bang
An unexploded bomb, a bunch of housing nobody seems to want and an argument over where a trench was built. All ingredients in a saga that is annoying the town of Castle Cary.
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Goes with a bang
Until researching this article, if you had asked me what a UXO was I’d have struggled to answer. Something vaguely related to UFOs obviously? Mind you anything with an “X” in it these days is usually traceable back to Elon Musk.
It turns out that UXO (almost) stands for “Unexploded Ordnance”. It is just one of the more lively ingredients in a row that has been engulfing the town of Castle Cary since 2016. At issue is a small plot of land known locally as Fox’s Run.
Just over the River Cary to the West of the town centre, the field is known by locals to be boggy. It is also pretty hard to access.
It was therefore both a surprise and a disappointment that the site was brought forward by local housing association Yarlington, to be developed. Yarlington wanted to put 27 new homes on the field.
Being a housing association, you might expect them to focus on building mostly Affordable (Affordable housing with a capital “A” is a defined term meaning they are rented out at 20% below market rates – it does not mean they are affordable) or Social Housing. However companies like Yarlington fund that sort of housebuilding project with the sale of houses at market rates. The profits on one providing the means to build the other.
All fair enough. Except that Yarlington applied to build 24 market rate houses and just 3 Affordable ones.
The planning application was heard in 2017 and The Leveller (our sister news outlet) was there. The South Somerset (SSDC) planning officer recommended refusal and councillors rejected the plans mostly on grounds of inadequate access and the impact on the residents of nearby Bridgwater Buildings.
However the developer appealed. On 26 April 2019 the Planning Inspector, Andrew Dawe allowed the appeal.
That date is important. It is a requirement of nearly all planning applications that work must commence within three years of the grant of planning permission or the application lapses.