Plans for new flats in Highbridge will still go ahead despite a protracted legal dispute between the developer and the local authority.

Sedgemoor District Council granted permission in late-July for Dorset-based developer New Shore Developments Ltd to build 29 new flats on the vacant brownfield site at 1 Market Street.

Since this decision the two parties have been at loggerheads over the Section 106 agreement – a legal document which binds the developer to provide contributions towards affordable housing and local amenities.

The council’s development committee ruled in Bridgwater on Tuesday (December 18) that the development may still go ahead – but the situation will be revisited in three months’ time.

Planning officer Dawn de Vries told the committee progress had been slow because the developer had not promised the “undertaking of costs” (the legal cost of officer time in preparing the agreement).

She said: “Since our last update in September, we have received such an undertaking, and the Section 106 agreement is now progressing.”

The proposed agreement would ensure 15 per cent of the flats are marketed as affordable housing – the equivalent of four dwellings.

The flats will be constructed over three storeys in two blocks, with 31 parking spaces for the tenants.

Burnham and Highbridge Town Council objected to the plans on the grounds of over-development and the lack of any retail space being included on the ground floor.

The committee unanimously voted to approve the plans in line with the decision in July, with a review being undertaken in three months.

If further progress has not been made on the legal agreements by March 2019, the council has the option to re-examine the application and potentially change its decision.