A new planning application for Watchet's East Wharf has been submitted in the summer of 2007, following the withdrawal of the completely unworkable first application.

Unfortunately, the new design is generally thought to be totally unacceptable as well, being overbearing and an abominable blot on a beautiful landscape of an ancient harbour town.

Whilst everyone agrees that the East Wharf needs urgent redevelopment, sadly West Somerset Council appear to be more interested in obtaining money and "credence" for themselves, rather than really improving the town of Watchet by planning a sympathetic and in-keeping development. It is of interest that West Somerset Council also planned a "enhancement" of Watchet Esplanade, assuming, with complete contempt of all the rules that they could just do it without Planning and Conservation Area consent! Luckily a High Court challenge has stopped the most disturbing part of this project, showing it is possible to stop the headlong rush that West Somerset Council are in to do just what they want without consideration of the town and its residents.

DETAILS OF THE ESPLANADE SCHEME AND HIGH COURT DOCUMENTS can be viewed HERE.

The proposals detailed below will completely sterilise the focal point of the town, with a giant building of 7 floors facing the sea, fronting two visually blunt, block type of buildings of 5 floors facing the Marina.

The views from the amenity area on Watchet's headland towards the harbour and town will be lost - all that will be visible are the top floors of the new building, whilst from the harbour front and Esplanade, the headland and cliff face will be completely obscured. Below is a composite picture showing the height of the main building. This was based on the older plans, so please note that the building shown on the right of the picture are ANOTHER floor higher!

Below you will find various documents and reports - or at least links to them - regarding both the planning application for the East Wharf and the policies that the Local Authority will rely on to determine the planning application. Clicking on the links will open the relevant document in a new page, whilst right clicking and selecting "save as" will save a copy onto your computer for printing or whatever.

If you find any inconsistencies in the WSC planning documents, both factual or conceptual, these can be valid planning objections. However, time is SHORT, so please act quickly.

Be warned, some documents are quite long and some are copyright of the owners - which means private use only, for submitting a planning objection and not for re-distributing. At the end of the list of documents is a detailed report from a professional planning consultant. This is very technical and is laid out in the rather abrupt fashion for legal reasons. Should the Planning Committee decide to ignore the issues it contains, it will provide a basis for an appeal to the Government Office of the South West to "call in" the planning decision should guidelines and rules have been broken.

This document has ben developed over several months and has cost a concerned group of individuals several thousand pounds already - and they are sharing it with Watchet residents for free. However, should these documents be of use, a contribution towards these costs would be very gratefully accepted! Please call 01984 634565 or make a donation at the Post Office towards the cause.

Please, if you are going to object, pick just one or two of the issues and write in detail, quoting any of the references that are relevant - it would be much better than loads of very similar letters. However, if you do not feel up to this, please feel free to email me, and I will do my best to help.


What would appear to be the most critical issues are:-

1)   All developments of 5 or more dwellings in Watchet must enter into a "Section 106" agreement with West Somerset Council to make a contribution to affordable housing as defined in a document called "SPG1". This can either be a percentage of the development as affordable homes, or, a cash contribution towards affordable housing in the local area. A rough calculation on the proposed development would indicate 21 dwellings or a contribution of about £1,200,000.00 (!) towards affordable housing. in exceptional circumstances, fully detailed, this can be negotiated. It would appear that WSC has, without public knowledge, negotiated with Urban Splash to negate any requirement for affordable housing or a cash payment. The Environmental Statement includes the full, gory details!

2)   Consistency and fairness of implementing the Conservation Area Guidelines. The fact that the WHOLE CONSERVATION AREA must be considered, not just the East Wharf. When local properties can not add a small building (see refusals for Yacht Club on headland and cottage at Highbank) because it would be ''Visual Intrusive", how can such a large building be acceptable. This smacks of double-standards. Please read, however difficult, the Conservation Area Guidelines below and use these in your objections.

3)   Over development of site with too high a density (also see above) and contravention of the Local Plan (viewable in both Town and District Council offices) in terms of housing and tourism.

4)  The lack of transparency in the manner that West Somerset Council (and to some extent our Councillors) are handling the whole project. There seems to be many secret deals, lack of listening to local people and what seems to be total ignorance of their own planning guidelines. Perhaps WSC is not a fit body to determine a such a complex and significant development which will change the whole character of the area. Simply as land owners, this would appear to be a prejudicial conflict of interests. I personally believe they do not have the necessary experience of dealing with very clued up developers - see the mess up on Minehead developments. I also believe that they do not have the resources to investigate all the facets of this application in the required thorough manner. Therefore, perhaps if the application could be determined by Central Government on an independent basis, we would get a fair consideration

The way forward may well be to initially write to the Government Office of the South West detailing carefully all the planning mistakes made so far by WSC and expressing WHY it is felt that WSC will not follow their own rules and guideline, nor act in a fair way. This will require as many letters as possible to, with a request for the Planning Application to be "Called In" to:-

David Brown,
Planning Inspectorate,
Government Office of the South West,
2 Rivergate,
Temple Quay,
Bristol,
BS1 6EH.

Looking at the picture below, you will see the bulk of the new building as viewed from the slipway - this is quite a way from the proposed development and the building will look more bulkier the nearer you get to it (REMEMBER there is another floor now on the right hand building! The jib (top) of the crane is at 20 metres from ground level which is few centimetres less than the proposed height. Actual spot heights can be see on the elevation plans which you can download from the list below. Please note heights are from sea level, so deduct 8.3 metres from each measurement.

If you wish to download the full images in higher resolution, then please go the "Other Useful Documents" section below and click on the links to download. Anyone has full permission to use these images in any publication or media.

Prepared by:-
John Richards,
Watchet.net web-hosting.
01984 634565
7th October 2007

REFERENCE DOCUMENTS FROM WSC WEBSITE

OTHER USEFUL DOCUMENTS

PLEASE NOTE THIS PAGE IS BEING CONTINUOUSLY UPDATED
PLEASE EMAIL WITH ANY BROKEN LINKS, EXTRA INFORMATION OR COMMENTS.

In 2006 West Somerset Council proposed various "enhancements" to Watchet Esplanade and secured a small amount of European Funding for the project. Unfortunately, the designs proposed were totally out of keeping with the Conservation Area and the inspiration of one officer who has publicly stated that he does not like Watchet!

Planning Permission was applied for, but when it was realised that this permission could never be granted (even by their own planning officers) the plans were withdrawn.

Subsequently, West Somerset Council planned to go ahead, without any planning permission, to build the scheme. Part of this included a large, modern structure as a "performance platform" some 9m in diameter and 6m high with a "Butlins type" roof. This included a 3m brick wall outside a residential property and sterilising the whole Esplanade.

The local resident, outside whose windows and entrance this monstrosity was to be built took legal advise and entered into detailed correspondence with the Council. The Council willfully ignored these representation and all planning rules, so the High Court were asked for leave to hear a Judicial Review on the lawfulness of the Council's decision to proceed without consent.

The High Court took the view there was a case to answer and granted the hearing to be heard as soon as possible. The Council decided that whatever the outcome, it would build the platform anyway and if the High Court decision went against it, would just apply for retrospective Planning Permission........

In view of this the resident asked the High Court to issue an interim order (often called restraining injunction) to stop any work until the trial as once built, the platform would be a "fete accompli".

The High Court reviewed the evidence and decided there was stil a case to answer by the Council and granted this interim order until the trial.

This order, reproduced below, forbids the Council from doing any building or preparatory work at all on the Performance Platform, but does not affect any of the other parts of the enhancement.

Much has been made by certain people that this would halt the whole project and lose the European Funding. This is not true as documents submitted to Court show.

Below are all the High Court documents and make interesting reading!

DOCUMENTS FOR JUDICIAL REVIEW AND INTERIM ORDER