Eight new business units are to be built at Cadbury Business Park in North Cadbury after Somerset Council planning officers approved the long-stalled scheme, ending three years of negotiations between the developer and the local authority.
The developer, Brickcourt Ltd., first submitted plans in October 2023 for the units on land off the A359 Cary Road, a short distance north of the A303 near Sparkford. Over the following three years the company worked through several different designs and sought to resolve issues surrounding access arrangements before the council finally gave the proposals the go-ahead, enabling construction to begin before the end of the year.
Three years of negotiation
The prolonged process involved repeated revisions to the scheme as Brickcourt Ltd. sought to address Somerset Council’s concerns. The developer’s history with the site extends well before the current application: Companies House records show charges registered against property at Cadbury Business Park as far back as October 2014. In January 2019 a transport assessment was prepared for a separate planning application by Mr Brian Rousell and Sons, which proposed a western extension to the business park comprising five units providing 4,980 sq m of gross floor area. Boon Brown Architects, the firm representing Brickcourt Ltd. on the current proposal, was also involved in that earlier application and has worked on other commercial and industrial sites in Somerset.
The negotiations also took place against a backdrop of wider infrastructure improvements in the area. The A303 Sparkford to Ilchester section, a major route linking the South West to London, was upgraded to a dual carriageway in a multi-million-pound scheme that opened to traffic on 4 November 2024 after construction began in 2021. The upgrade was intended to promote economic growth, improve journey times and unlock a bottleneck on the corridor. An independent economic assessment of the wider A303 Stonehenge scheme projected that improving the corridor could create 21,000 jobs and deliver a £39bn boost in the long term, though the tunnel project has faced its own delays and cancellations.
Local planning history also includes concerns over drainage in Sparkford. In 2016 Somerset Council gave assurances that no further development would be approved in the village until Wessex Water resolved drainage issues, issues that have reportedly not been fully resolved. Separately, the council’s planning committee south approved an application by Anthony Canvin for up to 34 light industrial units in October 2024, only to reverse that decision later due to legal problems.
Details of the approved plans
Under the newly-approved scheme, eight units will be constructed within three blocks at the south-eastern edge of the business park, providing just over 3,100 sq m of employment space. The existing storage yard and loading area will be retained, and an attenuation pond will be created alongside new landscaping to offset the impact of the development and reduce the risk of localised flooding.
How many new jobs will be created remains unclear, as this will depend on the tenants who ultimately occupy the units. Somerset has a predominantly small-business economy, with a high proportion of firms employing fewer than ten people and a larger share of businesses in agriculture, forestry and fishing than the national average.
A spokesperson for Boon Brown Architects, which is representing the applicant, said: “The proposed buildings are of an appropriate size, scale, and design to the local context, and have been designed in such a way that will not cause overriding visual harm to the landscape. The development provides an appropriate variety of unit sizes, as well as the necessary amenity and parking required. This proposal also implements extensive landscaping works which will not only work to screen and mitigate against the impact of the proposed development, but also that of the previously constructed phases of the Cadbury Business Park.”
Council’s planning rationale
The application was approved through the delegated powers of the council’s planning officers rather than by a public decision of the planning committee south, which normally handles major applications within the former South Somerset area. Senior planning officer Ian Cousins explained the reasoning behind the approval, citing the recently adopted North Cadbury and Yarlington Neighbourhood Plan, which designates land at Cadbury Business Park as an employment site to meet the needs of North Cadbury and the surrounding parishes. That plan, submitted for consideration in December 2021, sets out a vision for 2033 under which the parishes remain a “Jewel of a Place” – safe, thriving and well-connected – with the business park continuing as the main employment site.
Mr Cousins also referred to the National Planning Policy Framework, which he said supports the provision of a prosperous rural economy and reiterates the government’s desire to support economic growth in rural areas to create jobs and prosperity by taking a positive approach to sustainable new development. He added: “It is considered that infill of this gap between these two existing commercial sites… with a development of a similar scale and character will not have a significant detrimental impact upon landscape character. The proposed development will read visually with this existing built form rather than the introduction of new incongruous development within the countryside.”
