WEST Somerset District Council was given a clear message by some 60 members of the public on Monday - "please don't sell off any more car parks". The majority of speakers at two special council meetings held in the West Somerset Community College appealed for the authority to think again before selling off what it claims are "underused assets". Naomi Griffith, of pressure group DIRECT, said a tourist town such as Minehead could not afford to lose any more parking facilities. "Your decisions now will affect generations to come. "I came back to West Somerset after university because it is a lovely place to live . . . but fear in five years' time I will be desperate to leave again," Miss Griffith said. DIRECT chairman Graham Sizer questioned the logic behind selling Vulcan Road backed by a car parking study which claimed the town could cope with the loss of some car parks. He said the study had already been lambasted by councillors, re-written and then found to have miscalculations in it. The concerns were echoed by a number of councillors as they discussed the implications of the revised West Somerset retail study. Report authors Donaldsons were forced to recalculate their original findings after DIRECT used the Freedom of Information Act to access documents which subsequently revealed Minehead's Tesco supermarket had been left out of an equation used to demonstrate the need for a new retail development in the town. That equation was used by the district council as justification for selling the town's Vulcan Road car park for retail use after the separate car parking strategy claimed there was over-provision of parking spaces in the town. Council leader Cllr Steven Pugsley stressed the Donaldsons study was a technical planning document and not a report commissioned to pave the way for the authority to sell its car parks. But while he and the council's regeneration and policy team leader Trevor Shaw said they felt more confident with the new document as it had used a more accurate methodology, others remained unconvinced. Newly elected Cllr Jessica Griffith said independent scrutineers from the University of Plymouth had raised nine points for clarification on the document. She said any flaws coming to light now would have a serious impact on the overall conclusions. Cllr Keith Ross questioned why the population estimates for the area had leapt 30 per cent since the first draft of the study and said he had been told Donaldsons had simply used the TA4 postcode area for their calculations, which included people living in Wiveliscombe, Bradford-on-Tone and Fitzhead. "I don't believe many of those people travel regularly into Minehead let alone do their shopping there so these figures are extremely misleading. "If they were taken out the floorspace calculation would certainly be lower. "The first report was flawed and I've not got much confidence that this one isn't too," Cllr Ross said. While the first version of the study was based on what might happen in the next few years up until 2011, the redrafted version covers an extended period to 2016. The revised calculations have seen predicted expenditure on all goods rocket from £31.7 million in the first report to £83 million in the redrafted version. The all important floorspace calculation has also changed significantly from a combined figure of 4,167 square metres being needed by 2011 in the original document to 8,100 square metres by 2016 in the new study. As a result, the study concludes there is capacity for a "modern small food superstore soon after 2011 . . . and some retail warehouses". Council chief executive Tim Howes told members the council stood to lose out on the best price for Vulcan Road as a private landowner could benefit from the study now "the genie is out of the bottle". But his comments angered members of the public and Cllr Simon Stokes who said the council had already made "quite a lot of mistakes". He added: "If someone else wants to come in develop their land for retail which would then allow us to keep our car park space, surely that is a good thing?" Cllr Griffith said she did not understand why the council's budget rested solely on the sale of car parks and why it had not yet been re-written in case the council had to re-think its plans after the forthcoming public consultation. She said appendices revealing which shops had been included in the study had again not been given to councillors, although Mr Shaw pledged all members would receive copies before the end of the week. He told the meeting: "There are one or two things which need to be teased out further but it is corrective detail rather than significant amounts of change." He said concerns that the floorspace provided by existing DIY stores and a garden centre had not been included in calculations were understandable but not justified as that was the way "these studies are done". Cllr Pugsley said there was still some way to go before the revised study was adopted by the council, including the four week public consultation. "I believe we are all feeling more confident with this document and it should now be exposed to reconsultation," he said. An attempt by Cllr Griffith to stop the study going out for consultation until all the University of Plymouth's points had been verified was vetoed by the ruling Conservative group. She said: "It would be far more sensible to try our very hardest to make sure this is right this time around before we send it out to consultation."