North Somerset Council wants homes built alongside offices

摘要

It is rare to hear the calm of a new rural housing development shattered by the sound of a speculative office development under construction a few yards away. But that is the practical manifestation of North Somerset Council's policy of granting residential planning consent only to developers that include somewhere to work in their schemes. Developers say they know of no other local authority to introduce this obligation, but have accepted it. The council has just published a map showing no fewer than eight redundant mainly Royal Air Force sites served by junction 21 of the M5 (box, right).