Council in £30m bid for new Cleeve Hill coast road

WITH only six working days left to make a bid for government funding, Somerset Council has finally chosen a route which would re-open the B3191 coast road at Watchet at a cost of over £30 million, the Free Press learned this week.

Details of the last-minute bid for funds to build the proposed 350 metre stretch of new highway to bypass the crumbling “road to nowhere” at Cleeve Hill - shut to traffic since 2023 - were revealed behind closed doors at three meetings of local councillors and stakeholders last week.

The meetings were told that public consultation would only take place if and when funding was secured from central government.

Discussions, over which of six possible Cleeve Hill options was most likely to attract government funding, started in April. The one finally chosen, known as “Option D”, would be a new inshore link road from the top of Cleeve Hill and re-joining the existing road into Watchet at Saxon Close.

The scheme will also involve strengthening the West Street sea defences and acquiring land to the south of the existing B3191 and at either end of the new road.

Somerset Council is bidding for a share of £1 billion from the Department For Transport Structures Fund, available for repairing “highways structures” which are beyond a local authority’s budget.

The deadline for bids is August 3 and the scheme must be completed and open to traffic by March 2030 latest.

Somerset Council said at the meetings that Option D was chosen because it maintained a highway route, minimised impact on the environment, sustained the local economy and provide the best value for money.

It was also the cheapest. Other alternatives included a £73 million highway across the former paper mill site and a bridge running along the sea wall costing an estimated £1.3 billion.

“The road closure has had a very serious impact on Watchet’s economy,” said chairman of the town’s Chamber of Trade, John Richards. “We desperately need the council bid to be successful and are really happy that something is moving forward at last.”

“This bid is the only alternative that’s feasible at the moment,” said Cllr Brenda Maitland-Walker, chair of the Local Community Network highway sub- committee.

“At least it would serve the purpose of stopping the lower end of Watchet being a cu-de-sac with one way in and one way out. I’m very hopeful and would love to see the bid accepted.”

Loretta Whetlor, chair of SALC (Somerset Association of Local Councils) and Watchet’s mayor said: “The most important thing is that they have an achievable plan to forward to the minister. Now we just hope that the minister agrees to give us the money to put the plan into action by 2030.

We have lost so much without that road. The local shops have been badly affected by the road closure. We have lost a lot of visitors particularly those from the caravan parks in Blue Anchor.

Somerset Council said: “We acknowledge the negative impacts of permanently closing the road. This is why a new way of funding the development of the road is being sought as a priority.”