70 new homes are set to be built on the edge of a North Somerset village — despite being unanimously refused planning twice by the local council.

People in Congresbury have been left “bitterly disappointed” after the planning inspectorate overruled North Somerset Council’s decision to refuse planning permission for developer M7’s plans to build the homes on the edge of their village.

M7 lodged an appeal with the inspectorate after their plans were unanimously refused for the second time by the council’s planning committee last November. Lawyers for the developers and the council clashed in a four day inquiry over the “just too large” plans in September.

Andrew Green, one of the Congresbury locals who campaigned against the development, said: “After two years of campaigning against 70 houses, we are bitterly disappointed with the inspector’s decision as it will destroy the landscape and ecology and lead to increased traffic and noise in a quiet community.”

Issuing the decision November 4, planning inspector Stephen Wilkinson granted planning permission but applied 26 conditions to deal with issues such as flooding, traffic impacts, and “the living conditions of surrounding residents.”

Mary Short of Congresbury Residents Action Group said: “[I’m] very disappointed with the inspector’s decision. But I am pleased at the number of conditions he has imposed on the developers and hope they might find some of them difficult to meet."

M7 had originally wanted to build 90 homes on the field off the Mulberry Road cul-de-sac, but scaled this down to 70 after the first time the council refused planning permission. 30% of the houses would be affordable, but locals warned the location was “unsustainable” and prone to flooding.

A major reason for why councillors voted to turn down the development when it first came before the committee in October 2023, was that Congresbury locals had drawn up a neighbourhood plan for where housing should go in the village. Councillor Terry Porter (Hutton and Locking, Conservative) warned this had been “ignored” by the developers.

Councillor Hannah Young (Clevedon South, Labour) added: “That was not a ‘NIMBY’ neighbourhood plan.” She said that Congresbury residents selected places where new developments could be built in the plan — some of which remained undeveloped — but the field where M7 wanted to build its homes was not one of them.

Following the inspector’s decision, the village’s long serving former North Somerset Council councillor, Tom Leimdorfer, (Green, served 2003-2019) said in a message to campaigners: “I am very disappointed that the inspector more or less dismissed the relevance or the significance of the Congresbury Neighbourhood Plan and it makes me wonder why we spent so much time producing it and getting it approved.”

“None of you could have done more to achieve a different outcome,” he added.