6.1 Yeovil is by far the largest settlement in South Somerset and is the focus for employment, retail, services and housing in the District. It is located on the south eastern boundary of Somerset, adjacent to the Dorset border and is surrounded by a rural area of smaller market towns and villages.

6.2 Yeovil is closely linked to the A303 trunk road, which runs east-west through the District. The A30 and A37 run through the town. There are two mainline railway stations, Yeovil Pen Mill on the Weymouth-Bristol line and Yeovil Junction on the Exeter-London Waterloo line. Neither station is ideally located, Pen Mill is on the eastern edge of the settlement, Yeovil Junction is located two miles to the south. However, there is a regular bus service from the stations to the town centre and Pen Mill has good pedestrian and cycle links to the town centre via an off road path.

6.3 Rapid housing development over the last 50 years has now taken Yeovil's population to around 47,780 people[1] . This residential growth has primarily spread north and west of the town centre, absorbing the small hamlets of Preston Plucknett and Alvington, and now extending to the edge of Lufton hamlet to the west and Brimsmore to the north. Development to the southeast has been limited due to a combination of the River Yeo’s flood plain, steep hills, and historic homes and estates.

6.4 Yeovil plays a significant economic role in the County and is the prime economic driver for South Somerset. The town is the heart of aerospace research, design and manufacture in Somerset with a long history of aircraft manufacture dating back over 100 years. For context, it has 21 times the concentration of employment in aerospace than the national average and consequently there are a high proportion of manufacturing jobs in the town. There are also many jobs in health and social work and retail, but the town is under-represented in private sector services such as banking and finance. It has high levels of self-containment and also high levels of in-commuting.

6.5 Yeovil has a range of food and non-food shops with numerous national multiple operators. Some of the key services and cultural activities in the town include Yeovil District Hospital, Yeovil College, the Octagon Theatre, Yeovil Town Football Club, and the refurbished Westland Leisure Complex.

6.6 Some of the core town centre functions of Yeovil are currently located elsewhere in the town. For example many offices including the Yeovil Innovation Centre and South Somerset District Council’s main office are now located outside of the town centre.

6.7 The car currently dominates travel with over 40%[2] of people travelling to work by car or van. So whilst lots of people who live in Yeovil also work in Yeovil, they do not walk, cycle, or use public transport to commute. Although there are some dedicated cycle routes around parts of Yeovil, much of this network is discontinuous meaning that it is difficult to cycle to key destinations across the town, particularly from northern parts of Yeovil. Therefore, key traffic routes across the town suffer from congestion at peak times. Road traffic is the prime cause of poor air quality in parts of Yeovil, which has led to the whole town being designated as an Air Quality Management Area.

6.8 Yeovil is located in an attractive rural setting, within a sensitive landscape defined by escarpments to both the north and south. There is a rich historic environment in close proximity to the town, including registered Historic Parks and Gardens, village Conservation Areas and Scheduled Ancient Monuments. Much of the town is surrounded by Best and Most Versatile (BMV) agricultural land. There are several local wildlife sites and European protected species. The River Yeo flood plain runs along the eastern edge of the town. The Nine Springs Country Park just to the south of the town centre is a key asset and like much of the historic and natural environment provides tourism opportunities.

6.9 The Town Centre Development Strategy for Yeovil has been undertaken by consultants on behalf of South Somerset District Council and the refresh of Yeovil Town Centre is one of the Council’s Priority Projects for 2019 to 2020. More detail on this can be found in Section 11 – Town Centre Regeneration and Retail.

Housing

6.10 The spatial strategy proposes about 5,091 new homes at Yeovil, This level of housing provision helps to maintain a balance with the town's potential job growth and will serve to maintain Yeovil as the focus for growth in the South Somerset economy. Additional housing will also help to support a vibrant retail, leisure and service base for the town and wider area.

6.11 The development capacity in Yeovil within the Local Plan Review period as at 31st March 2018 has been identified as:

• Completions: 564 dwellings
• Commitments: 1640 dwellings
• Yeovil Sustainable Urban Extensions (SUEs):1565 dwellings
• Yeovil Town Centre: 400 dwellings (325 through Policy TC1 plus around 75 through Policy TC2)
• Other allocations: 922 dwellings

6.12 Sustainable Urban Extensions (SUEs) at Yeovil including 1,565 dwellings and 5 ha of employment land are still required to deliver the proposed level of growth for the town. This would equate to around 3,400 people living in the urban extensions when completed. The scale of growth being proposed is similar at each SUE, with approximately 800 dwellings in the south area and 765 dwellings in the north east. Sufficient land for economic development is provided to allow for one job per household, and a range of community facilities are included to ensure a mix of uses and more sustainable communities. These capacity issues will be resolved in due course, with contributions being sought through Section 106 obligations and possibly CIL[3] .

6.13 At the time of writing, planning applications for each of the SUEs remain to be determined [4] . In order for the outline applications and any subsequent reserved matters applications to be approved, they will need to have complied with the highest sustainability objectives and ‘Garden City’ design principles as previously established by Policy YV2 of the 2006-2028 Local Plan; and as set out in Policy YV1 of this Local Plan Review [5] ^.

6.14 In particular the following standards are to be pursued for these strategic locations for Yeovil:

• 40% greenspace – an aspiration in keeping with the Yeovil Vision and the high quality urban edge landscape of Yeovil;
• A minimum of 30% affordable housing to achieve the garden town aspirations of the Council for the Urban Extensions – the Council’s target is 35%;
• More options for non-car travel (30% of trips should be non-car) – the high usage levels of traffic on Yeovil’s roads throughout the network point to retention of this standard to enable maximum development and development benefits at minimum adverse traffic impact;
• 1 job per household provided on site – this enables a new sustainable community less controlled by the need to use the car;
• Homes accessible to public transport – the need to promote viable public transport in Yeovil is clear.

6.15 The Masterplanning of the planning application proposals has included the involvement and scrutiny of the local Parish Councils and communities.

6.16 The East Coker Neighbourhood Plan has now been made, having been agreed by an independent Examiner and the subject of a favourable referendum ^[6] . The neighbourhood area includes the whole of the parish of East Coker which extends into the southern edge of Yeovil, where the Yeovil South Area SUE is located.

6.17 The Neighbourhood Plan provides for at least 54 additional dwellings within the Parish over the period 2011-2028 this figure excludes to Yeovil South Area SUE. Policy SS2 of this Local Plan Review sets a requirement for 38 new dwellings in the Neighbourhood Area excluding the South Area Sustainable Urban Extension and the site allocated under Policy YV3 of the Local Plan Review.

6.18 Adopted Local Plan Policy YV3 identifies land in the Yeovil town centre for a mixed use scheme including housing, employment, retail and leisure uses. This proposal has now been superseded by the Yeovil Refresh proposals which are discussed in Section 11 of this Local Plan Review and consequently adopted Local Plan Policy YV3 has been deleted.

6.19 The site is adjacent to Brimsmore Key Site, to the north west of the main built-up area of the town. Whilst the settlement of Thorne Coffin lies to the east, the scheme would sit in a natural low lying valley between two ridgelines. Significant landscaping would be required on the western and northern edges of the site. To the east, the scheme would link with the existing Brimsmore Key Site development.

6.20 This site will form a southern extension to the south Sustainable Urban Extension. Listed buildings at Key Farm are located to the south east of the site. The site of a Roman Villa – a Scheduled Ancient Monument, is also located nearby to the north-west corner. There are Rights of Way across the site which will need to be retained or re-routed following a successful application for a Diversion Order. In order to protect the setting of the site of the Roman Villa to the east; and to provide the opportunity to enhance biodiversity and provide additional public amenity land, the field to the west of Pavyotts Lane should remain undeveloped and planted with strong landscaping.

6.21 This site on the northern edge of Yeovil, adjacent to Brimsmore Gardens, extends to nearly 11ha. The topography in the NE corner slopes more steeply down to ponds and wooded area, so this part of the site should be provided as public open space, an area of biodiversity and sustainable drainage. Access should be off Tintinhull Road and not via the A37.

6.22 This site is located on the north eastern side of Yeovil and proposes frontage development extending from the existing residential properties on the north side of Mudford Road to the small group of houses on the A359 as you exit Yeovil in the direction of Mudford.

6.23 Frontage development only is proposed to reflect the character of the existing properties along Mudford Road.

6.24 This is a brownfield site just to the north of the designated Yeovil Town Centre. It is capable of accommodating a high density residential scheme in a highly sustainable location.

6.25 This brownfield site is located in a predominantly residential area and its residential re-use should provide for reduced noise, hours of operation, traffic load and disruption. The site has the potential to link directly with an adjacent play area.

6.26 This is another brownfield site in a predominantly residential part of the built-up area of Yeovil; and a relatively high density scheme may be acceptable, subject to the impact on adjoining properties.

6.27 Located to the south of the Bundford Park employment site, this land is the subject of an outline planning application for up to 100 dwellings [7] . Due to the proximity of the site to the Grade 1 listed Brympton House and the Grade II* Registered Park and Garden it will be vital that any proposal meets the requirements of paragraph 189 of the NPPF and any determination is made in accordance with the principles and policies within the NPPF.

6.28 The Local Plan Review supports Yeovil’s role as the prime economic driver in South Somerset as well as parts of surrounding districts. Policy SS3 (Delivering New Employment Growth) sets a target of 24ha of employment land for Yeovil.

6.29 Given that Yeovil is the largest urban area in the District, it is expected that there will be a degree of replacement, churn and loss as older buildings and premises become obsolete and new land/buildings are developed. To some extent, this represents the natural cycle of stock upgrades and replacement seen within all urban areas. The majority of losses have been to residential use.

6.30 Three employment allocations were carried forward from the old Local Plan (1991-2006) into the adopted Plan. These are ME/YEOV/4 Land south of Yeovil Airfield, ME/WECO/1 Land off Bunford Lane, and the employment element of the Lufton Key Site, KS/BRYM/1, known as Lufton 2000. They all have planning permissions in place for employment development.

6.31 Figure 6.1 summarises the delivery of land for economic development in Yeovil as at 31 March 2018. This is all land for economic development, as opposed to just B Uses.

Figure 6.1: Yeovil Economic Development as at 31 March 2018

Source: SSDC Authority Monitoring Report 2018

6.32 There does not appear to be any particular appetite for large scale office building in Yeovil, although the Motivo building appears successful and the Yeovil Innovation Centre has also recently been extended. Planning permission has also been granted for the iAreo aerospace serviced accommodation on Bunford Lane, adjacent to the airfield, with construction expected to start soon.

6.33 Yeovil is the largest town centre in South Somerset. Food shopping (known as convenience goods) is spread throughout the town both within what is known as the defined Town Centre (identified on the Local Plan Proposals Map) and outside, in other parts of the town. A total of £174.63 million in convenience goods expenditure was attracted to Yeovil in 2017, 48% of the total convenience goods spending attracted to the District. Of this spending, 31% was in the Town Centre and 69% in the rest of Yeovil [8] . This is not surprising as the majority of supermarkets are located outside of the Town Centre and there continues to be pressure for this as the development industry believes there are no suitable, available and viable town centre sites to accommodate further growth in food shopping.

6.34 Comparison goods refer to durable goods such as clothing or footwear, in other words, non-food. The comparison goods expenditure attracted to Yeovil in 2017 totalled £392.35m, equivalent to 86% of the total comparison goods spending in the District as a whole. Food and beverage expenditure attracted to Yeovil is £90.86 million; 57% of the total attracted to the District [9] .

6.35 By way of comparison with other town and city centres, Yeovil is ranked 160th by Venuescore (2016) [10] , Taunton 90th, Bristol 13th, Bath 19th, and Exeter 22nd.

6.36 The household shopper survey carried out as part of the Retail and Main Town Centre Uses Study indicates that Yeovil is the main destination for 35% of South Somerset shoppers for food shopping and 77% for non-food. When asked what would make respondents shop in Yeovil more often 51.5% stated ‘nothing’. A better choice of shops in general is the improvement most would like to see. The following summarises the suggested improvements:

6.37 Looking to the future, the projected retail floorspace capacity at Yeovil is as follows:

Figure 6.3: Projected Retail Floorspace Capacity in Yeovil (sq. m gross)

Source: South Somerset Retail and Main Town Centre Uses Study, 2017

6.38 The vacant units in Yeovil town centre could accommodate some of this growth depending on the size and nature of available units and market demand.

6.39 The Retail and Main Town Centre Uses Study does not recommend any change to the existing retail hierarchy. Yeovil is seen as having the best prospects for attracting investment from developers and multiple operators and should be the location for large-scale development serving a wider area. Infrastructure

6.40 The Infrastructure Delivery Plan (IDP) Update 2015/16[11] identifies a number of infrastructure requirements for Yeovil, these are summarised below. This document also analyses issues which have emerged through a consultation with infrastructure providers, since the update was published.

Figure 6.4: Infrastructure Requirements for Yeovil

6.41 The aerospace company Leonardo is one of the main employers in Yeovil and is of key strategic importance to the economy of the town. In order to protect it from causing disturbance to sensitive uses such as new residential properties, a Flight Safety Zone (see Appendix Two) will be enforced and Noise Contours (see Appendix Four) used to guide sensitive new development away from the areas where such nuisance could potentially occur.