Watchfield Village Hall, Mark Road, Watchfield, Highbridge, TA9 4RD Data via plota.co.uk

12/26/00001 - Cert. of Lawfulness for Existing Use Approved

Proposal

Certificate of Lawfulness for the existing excavation of foundation trenches for a new village hall and the pouring of blinding concrete in the base of the trenches. Refer to attached 'Setting Out Drawing for Foundations' plan showing location of trenches. Data via plota.co.uk

View original council record ↗Last checked

Application progress

✓
Received
26 Jan 2026
✓
Approved
13 Feb 2026

Approved on 13 Feb 2026 · Last checked 20 Sept 2026

Site constraints 6

In flood zones plus climate change
Inside the extent flood zones 2 and 3 could reach with climate change: the Central allowance for the 2080s on rivers, the Upper End allowance for sea level rise to 2125. From the sea. Defences are not counted.
The Environment Agency flood map for planning. Councils use it to decide when a flood risk assessment and the sequential test are needed. It is indicative and does not show whether a particular property will flood.
Flood map ↗
Priority habitat: No main habitat but additional habitats present
A habitat of principal importance. It shapes the ecology work and the biodiversity net gain a scheme has to show.
Agricultural land, grade 3b
Not best and most versatile land (grades 1, 2 and 3a). Source: the Predictive Agricultural Land Classification Map (Defra and Natural England, 2025; the Welsh Government's Predictive ALC Map 2 in Wales), a model rather than a site survey. Natural England's Provisional ALC map (1:250,000, 1970s) agrees.
Where development of farmland is needed, policy prefers poorer land over the best and most versatile (grades 1, 2 and 3a). Three sources: Natural England's post-1988 field surveys, which are definitive where they exist; the Defra predictive map for England (2025) and the Welsh Government predictive map, modelled from the soil map with 3a and 3b split; and the 1970s provisional map, which planners and other services still show, coarser and with grade 3 undivided. Where the provisional and predicted grades disagree, treat the predicted grade as the current estimate and expect an application to carry its own survey.
Habitat network: Restorable Habitat
Where habitat is joined up enough to work as a network. Context, not a constraint on its own.
National infrastructure project about 711 m away: Hinkley Point C Connection
The site is about 711 m from the project boundary. Electricity line, decided. The project page says whether consent was granted. Also within 2 km: Hinkley Point C Connection Project Material Change (at pre-application, about 872 m).
Nationally significant infrastructure projects (power stations, electricity lines, pipelines, major roads and railways, harbours, airports and reservoirs) are consented by a Secretary of State under the Planning Act 2008, after an examination by the Planning Inspectorate, rather than by the council. The boundary is the one the Inspectorate consults on and can change as the scheme does. Projects are shown within 2 km of the site.
Planning Inspectorate project page ↗
Also on the record
Nature recovery project: Somerset Coast, Levels and Moors.
Not affected
Outside flood zones 2 and 3 · Not green belt · No scheduled monument at the site

Checked on 6 October 2026. The pin for this application is the centre of its postcode rather than the building, so distances to nearby designations are measured from the postcode and can be out by the width of the postcode area. Historic England, the Environment Agency, Natural England, the Planning Inspectorate and council datasets, Open Government Licence. A boundary can run through a site and the council holds the definitive record: confirm with the council before relying on this.

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Important details

Council
Sedgemoor
Application type
Cert. of Lawfulness for Existing Use
Postcode
TA9 4RD
Received
26 Jan 2026
Validated
26 Jan 2026
Parish
Burnham Without
Case officer
Show
Decision
Granted Permission
Decision date
13 Feb 2026
Applicant
Show
Agent
Paul Martin Associates, Auster House

How this decision compares

Decided in 18 days from validation, 11 days faster than Sedgemoor's median of 29 for lawful development certificates. Approved, as 89% of lawful development certificates here are.

89%decided within 8 weeks
89%approved
88decided in the last year

Plota live figures for lawful development certificates decided by Sedgemoor in the last twelve months, from validation. Sedgemoor decision record →

Consultation & key dates

Consultation
9 Feb 2026
Comments by
12 Feb 2026