MINEHEAD residents will get less funding for a new community centre – because of the cost of moving soil from one place to another.

Stratton Land Ltd. is currently constructing the Exmoor Gate housing development, comprising 69 homes on the southern side of the A39 Porlock Road in Minehead.

Under the outline planning permission, which was granted on appeal in November 2014, the eventual developer was legally bound to provide a financial contribution towards new community facilities in the town – with the amount estimated to be more than £491,000.

The London-based developer applied to Somerset West and Taunton Council to change its legal agreement and get out of this payment back in October 2022, arguing that the higher than anticipated cost of transporting soil away from the site meant the development was no longer viable.

Somerset Council has now agreed that the developer only has to pay less than £176,000 before the final house has been constructed and occupied.

Stratton Land Ltd. had originally intended to dispose of topsoil from the Exmoor Gate site by dumping it on an adjacent field, but these plans fell through after the landowner changed their mind.

To remedy the situation, the developer secured permission from the council in September 2023 to store topsoil at the former Wansborough Paper Mill site on the B3191 Brendon Road in Watchet.

Following an independent viability assessment, the council’s planning officers concluded that it would be acceptable for Stratton Land to pay £175,614 towards community facilities, rather than the £491,592 that was originally demanded.

This funding will have to be spent within an unspecified time-frame either within Minehead itself or the neighbouring parish of Dunster.

Craig Palmer, chairman of Minehead Town Council, lambasted the planned change when Somerset Council’s planning committee west met in Taunton on February 18 to debate this proposed change.

He told the committee: “The developer first started work on the site in 2020.

“It could not at that point have known that there were issues and difficulties with the site, and at that time should have made their first Section 106 payment.

“They didn’t, and the council’s failure to enforce that payment is not the fault of the local community – we should not have to suffer. The projected profit for the developer is still around £2.5m.”

Under the original Section 106 agreement, half of the community facilities contribution had to be made when construction began, with the remainder being due around the 35th dwelling being built and occupied.

Councillor Andy Hadley (whose Minehead division includes the site) said: “I stated in 2014 that any future developer should not be able to come back and alter this agreement at a later date.

“This is simply a matter of developer greed. We hear too many applications similar to this – this has to stop.”

Despite these reservations, the committee voted unanimously to amend the legal agreement and allow Stratton Land to pay the lower amount – with the proviso that this must be done within three months of the revised agreement being signed.