TOWN councillors in Minehead are to hold a special planning committee meeting on Tuesday (March 12) to consider McCarthy Stone plans to demolish the Co-op supermarket and adjoining shops in The Avenue and build 35 retirement flats.

Planning agent David Williams, of The Planning Bureau Ltd, said the Co-op was no longer viable in a town centre location because of the development of larger edge of town retail stores and changes to shopping habits.

He said a more appropriate, fit-for-purpose retail convenience store of 4,400 sq ft would be developed in its place and would open on the site when the retirement block was finished.

Mr Williams said the McCarthy Stone retirement living scheme would ensure residents maintained their independence via a range of communal facilities and a house manager, allowing them to remain in their own home as frailty increased in later life.

He said: “This is a very specialised form of accommodation that is currently limited within Minehead and Somerset as a whole, the development of which promotes downsizing and more efficient use of the existing housing stock, as well as a resident population with spending power reliant on more local facilities and shops adding to the vitality of the town.”

Mr Williams said the site was outside the Wellington Square conservation area, but surrounded by it on three sides.

“Redevelopment provides an opportunity to repair some of the damage done to the street scene along Summerland Avenue by the development of the current Co-op store,” he said.