A 60-BED hotel, farm shop, restaurant and electric vehicle charging station are at the heart of plans for new services on the A303.

The plan, for land off the A303 at Sparkford Road, West Camel, has been submitted to Somerset Council by Grass Roots Planning on behalf of Hopkins Estates Ltd.

If approved, the scheme would see the new services constructed on “what remains of three fields” north of the busy route, which is currently being dualled as part of a multi million-pound project.

The application says the intention is to create a services similar to a popular eco-friendly development off the M5 at Gloucester, “with a focus on celebrating the local environment, landscape and produce within”.

Views of the site at West Camel as it currently stands. Picture: BPL Architecture/Somerset Council

It would include an ‘energy station’, with an electric vehicle charging hub, a farm shop, restaurant, hotel/lodge accommodation – with 60 bedrooms over two storeys – HGV parking and accommodation of 50 spaces with an amenity block, and a solar field generating “enough energy to more than cover the proposed energy station and further promote the green credential opportunities of the scheme”.

Access would come from a new T-junction off the Steart Hill link, created during the dualling work, the application said.

There would be a net gain in biodiversity through the development, the plan claims, with “green corridors” around the site helping create “an attractive and green environment to encourage users to take advantage of the outside spaces”.

A view of the hotel/lodge proposed for the A303 services at West Camel. Picture: BPL Architecture/Somerset Council

However, the proposal has provoked mixed reactions from residents.

Joy Whittington, who runs The Bakery, across the A303 from the site, said the new services would add to a “severe loss of trade” the business has experienced during the dualling work.

“We have just suffered a severe loss of trade for the past three years while road works have been in progress and business has just started to improve as the temporary signage has been put up, only for us to discover … a planning application for a farm shop etc right opposite us which will take all our trade,” she said.

“My staff are very worried about this, as their livelihood depends on the Bakery, which is a family business.

“I must therefore strongly object to this application.”

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Geoff Lavender, of West Camel Road in Queen Camel, also objected.

“A great shame that another area of outstanding beauty is to be chewed up on the back of a road expansion,” he said.

“Not even a sign of anything environmentally useful, like a windmill.”

Meanwhile, Donna Edwards, of Rimpton, backed the plans.

She said: “The current two services, at Podimore and Sparkford, are overstretched. Not enough parking, only one electric chasrging point at McDonald’s, and very little HGV overnight parking.

“I fully support this application. It will bring employment to the area and create a much-needed services suitable for the heavy traffic of the A303 and the modern traveller.”

For more details on the application, and to comment, log on to somerset.gov.uk and search for reference 24/00841/FUL.