PLANS for up to 430 new homes to be built on a former paper mill site in West Somerset could be decided at the last-ever meeting of Somerset West and Taunton (SWT) councillors a day before the authority is abolished.

SWT major projects officer Simon Fox said a 2019 application by Wansbrough Mill Development Co Ltd was ‘live and pending’.

Mr Fox said the application, which was revised last September, would be brought to SWT’s planning committee before the authority was disbanded on March 31.

All four of the county’s district authorities will become part of a new unitary Somerset Council which is due to be vested on April 1.

The company wants to build 260 houses, 90 flats, and 80 sheltered homes on former paper mill land in Brendon Road, Watchet.

The scheme also includes commercial development which the company estimates could provide up to 510 new jobs, a business start-up centre, and a public car park.

The application is not on the agenda for next week’s SWT planning committee, after which only two further meetings are scheduled, the first on March 2 and the second on March 30, the day before the council is dissolved.

SWT councillors do not have any further meetings scheduled after the planning committee, only a gathering of ‘shadow members’ of a Taunton Town Council for which elections will be held in May.

Watchet paper mill Tameer Group new homes housing
An indicative plan of the former paper mill site in Watchet. (Tameer Group)

Wansbrough Mill Development Co Ltd is a ‘special purpose vehicle’ set up by London-based Tameer Group to build on the 38-acre Watchet site.

The land has been disused since paper and corrugated cardboard manufacturer DS Smith closed its mill in December, 2015, putting 176 staff out of work and ending a paper-making tradition in the town which went back 265 years.

Some of the main buildings on the site have since been demolished, and the cost of decontaminating the land before any development could start has been put at £1 million.

Watchet Town Council has been pressing for the B3191 road to be re-routed through the site, but the company said it was impractical and too costly.

The town council also wanted to see a proposed car park increased from 53 to 100 spaces to help with current parking pressures in Watchet.

Town councillors expressed concern about pressure on Watchet’s infrastructure because the combination of all significant new housing proposals locally could see the population double.

Williton Parish Council has expressed concern over the effect on traffic in the village and the inadequacy of proposals for a mini-roundabout to be built at the junction of North Street with Long Street and Fore Street.

It said jobs lost at the paper mill needed to be replaced as well as new ones created for residents of the proposed additional housing.

Williton councillors also called on SWT to consider major housing applications in both Williton and Watchet ‘as a whole’ because they all would impact on traffic in the village, which was the hub/crossroads for both West Somerset main roads, the A39 and A358.