THE cost to realign the B3191 away from a clifftop in Cleeve Hill, Watchet, must be found by Government, even if it reaches as high as the estimated £28 million, West Somerset MP Ian Liddell-Grainger said today.

Mr Liddell-Grainger pledged his support for a fresh request to Government for the funding to move the road inland.

The B3191, which connects Watchet and Blue Anchor, was closed earlier this year when engineers detected movement in the cliffs below.

Somerset County Council has since announced it would remain shut for the foreseeable future because it lacked the cash to do anything about the issue.

But Mr Liddell-Grainger said the money ‘must be found from somewhere’, or the long-term economic damage to Watchet would be ‘unthinkable’.

County councillors approached Government for funds to carry out remedial works but Roads Minister Richard Holden said Somerset was already being given £30 million for highway maintenance and improvements in the current financial year, and that under a funding formula agreed some years ago his department did not hold any contingency reserves.

MP Ian Liddell-Grainger.
Local MP Ian Liddell-Grainger. (None)

In response, the council has called for urgent discussions as to whether the work could qualify for help under the Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs’ flood and coastal erosion scheme.

Officials also suggested in the short term the cliff could be stabilised by the use of rock armouring and steel mesh.

However, Mr Liddell-Grainger said such a short-term approach would be akin to putting a sticking plaster on an amputation.

Mr Liddell-Grainger said: “Even assuming any contractor would be willing to take the risk of working on a cliff face that is liable to collapse at any moment such a scheme would only amount to buying time - and a very limited amount of it.

“The evidence of coastal erosion is all too obvious in the Watchet area.

“That road is only inches from the cliff edge and at some point it is going to disappear. The only question is how soon.

“Clearly the only option is to move the road inland, whatever the cost.”

Watchet traders had asked for the road to be reopened in time for the holiday season, but Mr Liddell-Grainger said he believed the situation was simply too perilous for it to happen.

He said: “I appreciate that local businesses stand to lose income while it is closed but that merely strengthens the hand of those of us who are trying to obtain the funding. 

“A cost/benefit calculation based on the long-term economic damage Watchet would experience without the B3191 in operation would clearly support the route being reinstated - and the consequences of not doing so are unthinkable.

The closed B3191 Cleeve Hill seen from the Watchet side
The closed B3191 Cleeve Hill seen from the Watchet side (Daniel Mumby/LDRS)

“We also have the added factor that on those frequent occasions when the A39 is blocked by an accident the B3191 is the only alternative route into West Somerset.

“Without it, and given the HGV restrictions further west, any closure of the A39 would effectively paralyse all traffic in the area.

“These two factors strengthen our hand in seeking funding and I will support the county council’s efforts in any way I can.”

Meanwhile, Mr Liddell-Grainger said he intended to raise the topic of roads funding in Somerset generally when at their request he meets members of Peninsula Transport, the group which brings together the five lead transport authorities in the South West.

Mr Liddell-Grainger said he would advance a view held by many of his constituents that Somerset was becoming the poor relation in terms of road improvements at the expense of authorities such as Devon and Cornwall.

“I am extremely grateful that in my constituency money has been found for large-scale upgrading of a motorway junction,” he said.

“But a rural county such as Somerset is about far more than motorways.

“There are A roads which still run through villages such as Ashcott and Washford, which should have been by-passed years ago, and there are miles of routes which are simply inadequate for carrying the levels of traffic they are now experiencing.

“These issues are deserving of far higher priorities than they currently receive and I shall make clear my intention to continue pressing for money to be spent on appropriate improvements.”