MAJOR plans will see a massive housing development on a former RAF base finally get its “long awaited” high street — along with hundreds more homes.

The Locking Parklands development is seeing RAF Locking turned into a major new village right on the edge of Weston-super-Mare, with many hundreds of homes set to one day be built across the whole site.

Currently, the site is surreal and disjointed, with different developments dotted around and the village’s GP surgery “in the middle of a field” as the houses around it have not yet been built.

Now, a new planning application has been submitted to build more than 200 homes on the empty streets around the GP surgery and to make a start on the development’s planned high street.

The plans will create a “a vibrant, viable and active mixed-use retail, education, and residential area” on the west side of Apprentice Way, from the Winterstoke Hundred Academy to the Locking Educate Together Primary School.

A statement submitted with the application said: “Countryside Partnerships and Homes England are delighted to submit this reserved matters application for 229 homes and 12 retail units as part of a comprehensive mixed use scheme that will deliver the long-awaited first phase of the high street at Locking Parklands.”

Apprentice Way is a wide boulevard set to be the village’s high street but with nothing except the two schools built along it. Now these plans will see a row of  “landmark” buildings with commercial uses on the ground floor and two to three storeys of flats above.

In total, 106 one and two bedroom flats above the shops on Apprentice Way are being proposed in the plans.

The remaining 123 homes will be family homes ranging from one to four bedrooms in size, built across the land between Apprentice Way and Flowerdown in an “environmental led” setting.

A cover letter submitted with the planning application said: “Overall these proposals are an extremely exciting and critical next phase of development for Locking Parklands and the growing community on this site and across the wider Parklands Village.

“It is intended that construction will begin on site as soon as reserved matters have been approved and all relevant conditions discharged.

“Currently, the programme anticipates consent being achieved in December 2024, with a start on site in early 2025.”

The application is a “reserved matters” application, submitted to determine the final details of a planning application, as it is covered by the “outline” planning permission granted for the Locking Parklands Village in 2015.

You can view and comment on the plans here: https://planning.n-somerset.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=summary&keyVal=SJ8R3XLPKBA00