THREE years after the first application, final plans to turn Minehead’s derelict Grade II listed Periton Mead school site into flats and bungalows has been approved by Somerset West and Taunton Council.

Owners LLK Property Ltd have been granted permission to turn the main house into 14 flats and to build 13 bungalows in the grounds.

The development will include a terrace of five two-storey dwellings and a pair of semi-detached two-storey homes. The proposed bungalows will be ‘cottage like’, of brick construction with stone surrounds on the doors and windows.

Periton Mead was built as a private house in the ‘arts and crafts’ style in 1922 and for many years was a school for children with special needs until it closed in 2000. It has been empty ever since and had been allowed to deteriorate.

In February, a fire, said to have been started deliberately, seriously damaged a building housing classrooms and a gym but did not reach the main house.

At previous hearings, objectors maintained that the development would spoil the period charm of the house and could cause serious flooding problems but there were no objections to the latest proposals and at its meeting in January, Minehead Town Council said it ‘saw no reason to refuse the application’.