THREE former town councillors, who have run Minehead’s Old Hospital community hub for the past two years, were this week locked out of the building by the owner over a bitter row involving an alleged £28,000 debt.

Retired consultant engineer Bill Howard, who bought the Grade II listed building from the NHS in 2015, for £350,000, said he had severed all ties with the community interest company Minehead Connect - run by Paul Bolton and Toni Bloomfield, both ex-Minehead mayors, and former councillor Emily Jones.

The CIC had managed the building for Mr Howard since 2016. In 2022 it launched a bid to buy the building, then for sale at £800,000, but was unable to raise funds, due, it was claimed, to the lack of a long lease from Mr Howard.

Mr Howard said the major dispute with Minehead Connect concerned a bill for £28,000 for extra toilets installed for a nursing service which rented part of the building.

Minehead Connect director Paul Bolton.
Minehead Connect director Paul Bolton. ( )

Both sides have denied being responsible for paying for the work and are now seeking a court judgement.

“The deal always was that Connect had a licence to manage the place and to develop it and take any income, and pay any costs to keep it open,” Mr Howard said.

“But now they owe me £28,000 and have denied owing me anything, saying it is my problem.

“They have not kept their side of the deal which was to maintain the place.

“We terminated their licence and changed the locks because when I spent money on their behalf they were supposed to reimburse me.

“I just want to get rid of the Old Hospital and have a much better chance of finding a buyer now that Minehead Connect is out of the mix.

“I gave them six months to come up with a plan to raise the money to buy the place but nothing was done and that’s been the story ever since the current people took over the CIC two years ago.”

As the war of words continued this week, Mr Bolton told the Free Press: “Bill has kicked us out and barred us from the building because he wants to sell it with vacant possession.

“We have a court hearing on April 16 because he has tried to force Minehead Connect into bankruptcy and we are fighting this.

“This row all started two years ago when he presented us with a bill for £28,000 for work done on the building for the nurses who are Bill’s tenants.

“This was work that he had agreed to pay for. 

“We can prove that we don’t owe the money but our future is uncertain until the result of the court hearing. 

“The company was set up to run the Old Hospital building and lease it out to the community.

“If Bill had given us the long lease he promised, we stood a good chance of raising the money to buy the building for the town and make it into something really special.”