A NEWLY-formed action group is already more than half-way toward raising the money needed to fight plans to build 230 homes on farmland on the outskirts of Watchet, the organisers said this week.

The Parsonage Farm Action Group is crowdfunding for legal support to have the controversial scheme turned down and has raised £3,500 online and through private donations toward its £5,000 target.

The 33-acre site is one of four which will increase the number of homes in Watchet by almost 900 and, residents claim, will put facilities and infrastructure at breaking-point.

The Parsonage Farm group is raising money to engage the services of lawyer Tim Taylor, who was involved in fighting a planned development of 136 homes on the B3191 Cleeve Hill, which was refused in January, 2023.

The application, from the Wyndham estate, is to build the houses and 11 industrial units, which, they claimed, will help support the town’s services and facilities and raise Watchet’s profile as a business destination.

The ‘hybrid’ planning application also includes a new access road and cycling and pedestrian facilities.

New houses and apartments would range from one to four bedrooms and 35 per cent of the homes would be ‘affordable’.

Somerset Council’s planning committee will make a decision on the application in the coming months.

A spokesperson for the action group said: “The developers want to turn good quality, productive agricultural land into 230 homes when there is a far better site at the disused Wansborough Mill.

“If all the active and planned developments were to be approved, Watchet would grow by almost 50 per cent over the next couple of years, placing the already strained existing infrastructure, medical services, schools, bus services, road access, food shops, water/sewerage, electricity, etc, under unsustainable pressure.”

The Wansborough site, the western-most of the four locations, has been vacant since the paper mill closed in December, 2015, losing 176 jobs.

Tameer Homes originally submitted plans to build 350 homes on the site, along with a hotel, leisure facilities, and a visitor information centre.

That site was then bought last summer by Stratton Land Ltd, which said it intended to build at least 280 residential dwellings.

Lucy Corlett-Shaw, an action group organiser, said Williton Parish Council and Watchet Town Council were opposing the application, together with more than 140 residents who were against the scheme.

Sahe said: “Nobody has given any good reasons why this proposed housing is necessary.”

Another organiser, Sam Westmacott, said: “The action group is leading the fight against this proposed development, arguing we do not need 230 new houses.

“Their main concern is that Watchet has neither the services nor employment to accommodate more residents.

“Savills are the agents for the Wyndham Estate application and they believe they are certain to win because it was approved in the 2016 local plan.

“Local residents, particularly those who live in Churchill Way - already troubled by this week’s flood water careering down the hill into their road - aim to stop them.

“We are no longer the town we were. Then, there were 4,000 inhabitants - now there are only 3,500, 40 per cent of whom are over 60.

“Then, there was employment. Now, without Wansborough Paper Mill and the marina hardly functioning there is little work.

“People have to drive to Taunton, Minehead, and Bristol for jobs.

“Since highways closed the road to Blue Anchor, the historic west side of town is a quiet, pedestrian safe, cul de sac.

“If the railway bridge onto the B3190 is blocked nobody can leave and ambulances have to wait to reach their patients.

“The town is now marketing itself as a tourist destination with its museums, festivals, carnivals, and the galleries of the East Quay as main attractions.

“Watchet wants to preserve its quaintness and is resisting being overrun by housing developments.”