Published: May 22, 2007
Highbridge residents win battle to save Queen Square from developers

Controversial plans to build two three-storey buildings, each containing six flats, on public amenity space in Highbridge were thrown out by district planners on Tuesday, May 22nd.

Burnham-On-Sea.com reported last week how the unpopular scheme for Queen Square, pictured above, had led to an 82-strong petition and five letters of objection being sent to planners by local residents.

And on Tuesday morning, district planners voted unanimously against the scheme - overturning the recommendation by Sedgemoor District Council case officer Rob Morgan for permission to be granted.

Several members of Sedgemoor's Development Control Committee visited the site last Friday to see for themselves how the development might affect the area.

And Burnham's Deputy Mayor, Cllr Neville Jones, who addressed Tuesday's meeting, told Burnham-On-Sea.com he was delighted with the result.

"Valuable amenity space would have been taken away from the people who live there, which would have been unacceptable," he said.

"I referred members of the planning commitee to Ebenezer Howard, the great architect behind Letchworth Garden City, and said that in this case it felt as though we were dealing with other Ebenezer - Mr Scrooge."

"It would have been detrimental not only to Queen Square, but to the whole estate, which was designed in the 1950s with this green area at the heart of it."