A PLANNING application for a new indoor entertainment centre which would allow Butlin’s to increase its number of social-distancing guests from 3,300 to 5,000 when the resort is allowed to re-open after the lockdown, has been recommended for refusal by Minehead town council planning committee.

At its meeting last week, the committee decided that the new entertainment facility, which would hold up to 860 people, and would occupy the former circus tent site for up to three years, risked damaging local residents’ mental health through lack of adequate sound-proofing.

Residents living in nearby Warren Road also urged that the application be rejected, claiming that the noise from the site had previously been ‘horrendous’ and ‘like Chinese torture’.

Committee members also claimed that the project lacked public toilet facilities, adequate social distancing and efficient ventilation. They asked Somerset West and Taunton council’s planning committee to make a decision on the application rather than hand it to planning officers to make a delegated decision.

Making the application for Butlin’s, Ian Jewson, of Bristol-based Walsingham Planning, said at present the site was an area of mown grass which last year contained an outdoor stage which provided additional entertainment capacity while improving social distancing.

The facility could not be used in bad weather and the proposed temporary building would accommodate up to 860 guests and provide continuous family entertainment.

For the full story, see this week’s West Somerset Free Press.