Goodness knows where they are going to build next in Nailsea and Backwell but some decisions will be made in the new year.

Nailsea is going to get nearly 4,000 new homes and Backwell a further 700 within 20-30 years.

Several protest groups have been campaigning to save our countryside from more concrete covered green fields.

But that decision is already set in stone with a government-imposed fait accompli which just leaves the nuts and bolts of the accompaniments to discuss/debate and/or consult – type of homes, exactly where they are going, new roads, schools, shops and jobs.

‘New Town’ Nailsea of the 1970s-early 1990s when bored teenagers with nothing much to do has sadly metaphorized into ‘Old Town’ Nailsea dominated by senior citizens and sheltered housing complexes.

Nailsea Town Council want to use land at The Causeway and is calling for a Green Belt review – a dangerous move to fulfil some of the new building obligation.

It sold land at Engine Lane to Barratt Homes for 183 houses in the hope of providing some ‘affordable’ homes.

And while no-one has ever determined what is ‘affordable’ the development is likely to be delayed while National Grid decide the size of its trench for underground cables.

The government definition of affordable housing states it must be provided at a level at which the mortgage payments on the property should be more than would be paid in rent on council housing, but below market levels.

Um. Clear as mud.

One mortgage lender said that repaying £200,000 over 25 years would cost £1,228.17 per calendar month and total repayments would be nearly twice the original amount borrowed at £368,451.

The former Clevedon Road council semi recently auctioned with a guide price of £200,000 sold for £226,000 in November although it did have a possible building plot on the side.

The field at the entrance of Nailsea & Backwell Rugby Club has just gone on the market for a cool £1.4 million.

It has outline planning permission for six dwellings with access approved and is being sold by formal tender by DJ&P Newland Rennie at its Wrington office.

The deadline for bids is noon on Tuesday, January 15.

The prices at the scaffold covered High Street conversion of the original Coates House offices are said to start at £160,000 for a one-bed.

A developer bought the property for £2 million two years ago.

So what next – The Uplands?

Mactaggart and Mickel Homes has lodged an appeal after North Somerset Council failure to decide its outline planning application to build 450 homes north of Youngwood Land and east of Netherton Wood within the statutory time limit.

The appeal will be heard during a six-day inquiry which will begin on Tuesday, September 3, 2019.

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North Somerset Local Plan

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North Somerset Council has confirmed it would have refused the application, stating the development was ‘premature’ and would ‘undermine the coordinated planning and extension of Nailsea envisaged by the draft Joint Spatial Plan (JSP) and the emerging North Somerset Local Plan’.

A report prepared for the appeal states: “Given its location and relationship to proposals for development and strategic transport options being considered for Nailsea, the effect of developing this important site will be so substantial that to grant permission for a housing scheme at this stage will undermine the plan-making process and will predetermine decisions about the scale, location, phasing, infrastructure provision and distribution of development to the south west of Nailsea central to the draft JSP.

“The proposal has the potential to predetermine and prejudice future sustainable development at Nailsea and therefore undermine the planning, delivery and sustainability of one of the strategic development locations identified in, and central to, the JSP.”

Nailsea is earmarked for 2,575 new homes over the next 20 years, with another 725 possible after 2036.

The North Somerset Times reported that Nailsea Town Council is keen for new houses to be built to boost the area’s population, but it is also calling for a masterplan to prevent piecemeal development and a lack of infrastructure.

North Somerset Council will prepare evidence for the planning inquiry to show that the proposal would be ‘prejudicial, premature, and harmful’ to the strategic development proposals emerging though the JSP as well as the North Somerset Local Plan.

Meanwhile a Portishead councillor told the Bristol Post that ‘flat pack’ home funded by a government grant of £557,000 could see the first 50 new homes go up there.

North Somerset Council executive member for asset management Councillor David Pasley said: "This type of scheme sees modular houses constructed off site.

"The funding will allow us to prepare the site at The Uplands and put in all the infrastructure needed such as access roads and services.

"The individual plots would be prepared ready for the homes to be constructed.

"Developing in this way means that the homes will literally go up in front of our eyes and bring much needed new homes to the area.

"There is a real need for affordable homes in Nailsea."

A timescale for the development is yet to be agreed.

But criteria attached to the funding states that once building begins, work must be completed within a year.

The agreement also states that the funds need to be spent by March 2021.

Mr Pasley added: "Profits from the developments will be split and we estimate that it will bring in an estimated £6 million in revenue for North Somerset.”

The land at the Uplands, which lies next to Grove Playing Fields, is included in the local plan for housing.

Public comment on the North Somerset Local Plan 2036 closed this week, we wait with baited breadth to learn what the residents have to say.

Meanwhile the upmarket Royal Oak Mews and Bucklands sheltered homes are being offered for sale...