PLANNING permission has been given for a new changing rooms block to be built for Watchet Town Football Club.

The club, a former champion of the Somerset County League, wants to extend its existing clubhouse building on the Watchet War Memorial Ground to accommodate changing for home and away teams on match days.

Somerset Council planning department case officer Briony Waterman said the new development would not have any significant impact on the visual or residential amenity of the area.

Ms Waterman said: “The proposal brings the changing facilities from one side of the pitch to adjacent to the football club.”

The planning application received the support of Watchet town councillors and there were no objections from any neighbouring residents.

Football players currently have to change in a dilapidated town council-owned pavilion on the other side of a playing field where Harold Gimblett once played cricket for Watchet.

Gimblett, who was an England international in the 1930s, was born in Bicknoller and is considered by many people to be the greatest cricketer Somerset has ever produced.

The war memorial pavilion, which was built in 1929 in memory of local men who died in the First World War, is planned to be renovated by the recreation ground committee in partnership with the town council.

But a grant application to the Community Ownership Fund was unsuccessful and the council has since met with local MP Rachel Gilmour to ask for help in sourcing other potential Government funding.

A management committee spokesperson said: “The building is old and needs a lot of maintenance which we cannot presently afford.”

Permission for the new changing rooms was granted on condition the football club started the work within three years and that the external finish of the building matched that of the clubhouse.