HERE’S a thing.
Back in 2016 the country voted to leave the European Union and it then took under four years to ‘get Brexit done’.
So, if that task took such a relatively short time, how come successive councils have failed to ‘get Firepool done’ after more than 16 years?
The cows’ moos and the thud of the auctioneer’s gavel sounded for the last time at Taunton livestock market on Firepool in early January 2008.
A centuries-old tradition ended as the animals and farmers were herded off down the A38 to North Petherton to a new market.
Why then has it taken so long for nothing to have been built on a few acres of land in Taunton while 27 Remain nations managed to settle things in under a quarter of the time after the UK abandoned the EU?
Councillors and officers started planning for ‘Fire-exit’ two decades ago.
Glossy brochures boasted of plans for shops, leisure premises, bars and restaurants, offices and flats.
“We’ve got some great businesses lined up, but we can’t reveal names,” we’ve been told by successive councils - Taunton Deane Borough Council, then Somerset West and Taunton Council and now Somerset Council.
There was talk of Waitrose and Next taking space on the prime riverside plot. Not now.
Sadly, across the country, stores are closing at a rate due to burgeoning online shopping; fewer bars and restaurants are opening; and working from home has crushed demand for office space.
Since the closure of the market, sporadic works have been carried out.
Concrete has been torn up; buildings demolished; grass laid to make the site sightly during the cricket World Cup; drainage work to prevent flooding; connections to the mains sewerage; and now a meadow has sprung up. But nothing's been built.
A boulevard connecting Taunton Station to the town centre is said to be imminent.
One bright note is the completion nearby of a centre for digital innovation. Fingers crossed it’s a success.
At least work on the Coal Orchard site, off St James Street, was completed in late 2022 - despite major issues with the main contractor, Midas, which lacked the Midas touch as it plunged into administration.
But, although several of the flats there have tenants, only two of the business units have been occupied.
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