Cleeve Hill Action Group raises funds to legally challenge plans for 136 homes

The Cleeve Hill Development Group put forward plans in April 2021 to build 136 new homes on the B3191 Cleeve Hill in Watchet, which would include the realignment of the coast road linking the town to Blue Anchor.

The plans are currently being considered by Somerset West and Taunton Council, and could come before its planning committee for a decision later this year.

But any decision in favour of the plans could end up being overturned if a local campaign group mounts a successful legal challenge.

The Cleeve Hill Action Group has set up an online crowdfunder on GoFundMe, asking residents to donate towards formal legal action, beginning with an initial solicitors’ letter.

As of Wednesday morning (January 26), the group has raised £630 towards its £5,000 target – with the donors including Rosemary Woods, who represented Watchet on West Somerset Council between 2015 and 2019.

Group co-founder Jan Martin said: “This development will lead to the creation of unsustainable traffic levels in this small town with narrow single lane roads – along with the destruction of what is possibly a historic site of a medieval town and a site of special scientific interest (SSSI).

“The fact that the land is unstable will impact current residents by causing subsidence, and purchasers of the new homes as the houses will be at a similar risk.”

The land around Cleeve Hill has been subject to considerable coastal erosion in the last few decades, leading to Somerset County Council commissioning a report into possible ways to protect vulnerable properties in Blue Anchor and Watchet.

Ms Martin added: “These homes would increase an already high flood risk for the centre of our town.

“There is an alternative brownfield site available which could accommodate nearly three times as many houses.”

The brownfield site in question is the former Wansborough paper mill on Brendon Road, which has been vacant since the business shut down in 2015.

Tameer Homes has put forward plans for 350 new homes on the site, along with shops, a hotel, leisure facilities and a “visitor interpretation centre”.

A decision on these proposals has not yet been made – though separate plans for a battery storage energy facility at the site’s western edge were approved in November 2021.

Ms Martin has alleged the council will be inclined to approve the Cleeve Hill plans in order to secure the realignment inland of the B3191 – a scheme which would otherwise cost taxpayers around £28M to achieve.

She said: “We believe the authorities will try and push this development through, despite the way it contravenes many statutory requirements because the developer will have to be responsible for rebuilding the collapsing highway, thus saving the authorities money.

“People’s donations will be put towards challenging this application at every level, but mainly towards legal costs if we should have to go to court.

“By donating, you will be helping to preserve precious green land and striking a blow for ordinary people against a callous bureaucracy and greedy developers.

“The residents of Watchet will be forever in your debt.”

The site is currently allocated for housing within the council’s Local Plan, with a specific requirement that any scheme should “provide a new alignment for the B3191 to address the impact of coastal erosion.

A spokesman for Martins Lee Associates (representing the applicant) said the developer would work with Homes England to provide sufficient affordable housing on-site and would honour any commitment made towards the coast road.

He said: “The shortfall in affordable housing provision can be fully redressed by funding which Homes England will provide for that very purpose – to support developments whose viability has been robustly tested and cannot afford otherwise to provide the council’s target percentage of 35 per cent.

“The delivery of this site forms a critical component of the council’s strategy towards maintaining the arterial coastal route and the link it provides between settlements.”

A previous version of the Cleeve Hill plans were refused by the council in July 2020, citing concerns about the lack of affordable housing, pedestrian access to and from the site, and a lack of reassurance over the stability of the land.

The newest proposals are expected to come before the council’s planning committee later in the year.

To donate to the Save Cleeve Hill crowdfunding campaign, visit www.gofundme.com/f/save-cleeve-hill.