Mendip District Council rejected the proposals for the development in October last year because of the noise and disturbance the additional traffic would cause to existing residents in an adjacent housing estate and because it said the proposals provided inadequate parking spaces.
The Inspector acknowledged in her report (15-page / 174KB PDF) that there would be a "noticeable increase in traffic movement within the existing development" which would generate an increase in noise.
However, she said that the layout of the roads, which seek to reduce traffic speeds to around 20mph, traffic movement would be "smooth and free-flowing" at "most times of the day". "Moreover, there is no substantiated evidence before me to show that the additional noise experienced by nearby residents would be at an unacceptable level," she said.
The Inspector noted that the 196 parking spaces proposed in the scheme did not meet the Council's requirement of 225 spaces for a 97-home development.
However, she said that the requirement would be lower if it had been calculated using car ownership data from the area of the appeal site only, instead of data from the whole of Shepton Mallet which the Council's figure was based on. She also noted that the Highways Authority had made no objections to the scheme.
The Inspector concluded that the proposed development would "not create a severe impact in terms of noise or disturbance to existing residents and that parking provision would not have an adverse affect on highway safety or the free flow of traffic on the existing roads and such would be acceptable".
