Midsomer Norton Town Council has held its first planning meeting under the new coronavirus rules, discussing local building applications over Zoom.

At the first meeting they elected a new Chair of the planning committee, Cllr Gordon Mackay, who in turn proposed Cllr Brian Lawrence as his deputy. Both nominations were agreed unanimously.

After discussing some agenda points on local planning decisions, councillors heard that the controversy about B&NES decision to delegate the planning decision about gas generators close to Welton School. Councillors heard that the controversial scheme has many opponents and has itself generated a lot of media interest.

The Nub News story about the generators site is here : Midsomer Norton news

Cllr Mackay told councillors that he had been contacted by lots of journalists, including the BBC for comments - and had declined to make any - and by the head of planning in Bath.

He told the meeting; " This seems to have caused a lot of controversy and our role in objecting to it."

The former mayor of Midsomer Norton, Micheal Michael Evans told councillors: " We objected to this and then it went off to B&NES, so we followed the protocol exactly."

Earlier the meeting discussed several active planning applications in Midsomer Norton which included:

- A re submission of a a planning application at 11 Clapton Road Midsomer Norton Radstock. (20/01831/OUT) Outline application for the demolition of an existing house and outbuildings and building of two dwellings. The original application was for four houses which would have meant it falling outside the housing development boundary - so bringing it down to just two houses, led the committee to formally record it had no objections.

- Application (20/00820/FUL) at 22 Charlton Road Midsomer Norton BA3 4AE. Provision of a loft conversion. No comments - no objections.

- The planning appeal against the earlier refusal of the application for 19 Gladstone Street Welton Midsomer Norton for building four dwellings following the demolition of existing house and outbuildings. (Appeal Ref: 20/00023/RF Application Ref: 19/04123/FUL). Councillors heard that this is an attractive area, an unexpected green space close to the centre of Midsomer Norton. They agreed to pass the application with no comments.

The full agenda of the planning meeting can be found here:

the Midsomer Norton Town Council site