PLANS for 11 new homes for social rent in Spaxton, near Bridgwater, have been submitted.

Black Box Planning, on behalf of housing association Aster 3 Ltd and the Spaxton Community Land Trust, has submitted a planning application to Somerset Council for a 1.86-acre site in Pearwater Road.

Access to the ‘courtyard’ development would come from Pearwater Road, with two one-bed flats, six two-bed houses, and three three-bedroom houses developed.

The submission of the plans comes after a consultation event held at Spaxton Village Hall in April last year to gain the views of residents, with around 60 people attending.

The application said the scheme aims to build “11 new, high-quality homes for local people” available for social rent, with a “shared communal space at the heart of the development”.

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“The homes are accessed from, and look into, a centralised pedestrianised courtyard,” the application said.

“This space, which combines areas of soft and hard landscape, will be an attractive safe area for leisure or gatherings.”

Solar panels and air-source heat pumps will be installed in all properties, as well as an electric vehicle charging point for each.

The proposals also include “measures to provide additional planting, including hedgerows, area of shrubs and trees, which will contribute towards improving wildlife habitats and increasing biodiversity”, the application added, as well as the planting of a wildflower meadow in an adjacent field.

The scheme will now be considered by Somerset Council planners. For more details, and to comment on the plans, log on to somerset.gov.uk and search application reference 45/25/00012.

How the new homes in PEarwater Road, Spaxton, could look. Picture: Spaxton CLT/Somerset Council