Caravan Site Higher Beetham Whitestaunton Chard Somerset TA20 3QA Data via plota.co.uk

Decided 25/02820/COL

Council

South Somerset

Date received

24 Nov 2025

Date validated

24 Nov 2025

Postcode

TA20 3QA

Description

Application for a Lawful Development Certificate for the existing use of the land outlined in red for the siting of a maximum of 69 caravans or motorhomes, occupied for holiday purposes between March and October and the use of the land hatched in yellow for the storage of up to 15 caravans The use of the land hatched in yellow for the storage of up to 15 caravans Data via plota.co.uk

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Last checked 9 Oct 2026, 06:45

Site constraints 6

Nutrient neutrality catchment: River Axe SAC

New homes and overnight accommodation must show nutrient neutrality before approval.

Natural England advice: extra wastewater in these catchments harms protected habitats, so schemes must offset their nutrient load, usually through credits.

Blackdown Hills National Landscape

Great weight to conserving the landscape; major development restricted.

Previously an area of outstanding natural beauty, which is still the designation in law. Since 2023 authorities must seek to further its purpose, not merely have regard to it.

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: Network Enhancement Zone 1

Where habitat is joined up enough to work as a network. Context, not a constraint on its own.

Also on the record

Radon affected area, class 4; SSSI about 499 m away: Long Lye SSSI.

Not affected

Outside flood zones 2 and 3 · Not green belt · No scheduled monument at the site

Checked on 8 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 British Geological Survey and UK Health Security Agency (radon, contains BGS materials © UKRI) 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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