A £2.5 MILLION project to regenerate Watchet’s decrepit East Quay is grinding to a halt – because the two key figures in the negotiation have not spoken for months.

The Watchet-based not-for-profit company the Onion Collective, working on community-led regeneration, was chosen by West Somerset council to develop an imaginative scheme for the area.

But Watchet Harbour Marina boss Tim Taylor, who leases the East Quay from the council and uses it for boat storage, has until recently been on business in America and unavailable for meetings.

In the meantime, according to the Onion Collective, nearly a year of its three-year option has gone without any firm agreement being made with the marina on how the project will progress.

In a statement this week, the Onion Collective said: “We were awarded a three-year option on the southern portion of the East Quay in early 2015.

“But since then – despite our meeting all the stated requirements for the marina and offering to build new facilities for the boat owners as well as a new marina office and reconfiguring the site to enable parking to be retained on the quayside – negotiations have stalled.

“The decision to remove the boat shed was made by the council independently of us on safety grounds. We eagerly await the engagement of the marina operator now that Tim Taylor is back in Somerset. Both we and Watchet are expecting progress in 2016.”

Mr Taylor was unavailable this week, but Watchet Harbour Marina manager James Burnell told the Free Press that information on the scheme requested from the Onion Collective had not been forthcoming and until that was available there could not be further meaningful discussions.

He said that, as the site’s leaseholder, Mr Taylor was responsible for its future and had to be certain that any development was in the interests of both the town and the boat-owning community.

The future of the two-acre site has been in limbo since February 2014 when Manchester developer Urban Splash pulled out after a ten-year wrangle over what should be built on the crumbling quayside.

The Onion Collective became the council’s preferred bidder last February when the social enterprise company was given a three-year option on the site for its charismatic ‘Vision for Watchet’ scheme.

Dreamed up by architect and broadcaster Piers Taylor, the project includes a work foundry for skills-sharing and apprenticeships, cafés, restaurants and high-quality marina facilities.

A major talking-point would be a vertical pier, dubbed “the walkway in the sky” which would provide a viewing-point for visitors.

It is claimed that the complex, with business premises, an art gallery, community space and workshops, could bring an additional £2.3 million a year in visitor-spending to the town.

Onion Collective director Naomi Griffith said that demolition of the former dock warehouse by the district council last autumn meant that some original plans would need to be revised.

But there was still great enthusiasm for the scheme in the town and it was frustrating that lack of communication with Mr Taylor meant that the project was largely at a standstill.

“There is a lot of work still to be done including surveys on the site,” she said.

“There is no denying things have been difficult but we are still really keen to move the project forward as soon as possible.

“We very much hope we can start talking with the marina again in the near future. We are certainly not going to give up. We are a very determined group of people!”

Watchet Boat Owners’ Association secretary Ray Ventura said that the frustrating stalemate would continue until both sides were prepared to sit down and negotiate.

“We feel it is incumbent on the marina company to kick-start the discussions,” he said.

“This situation has been dragging on for nearly a year.

“We want to see an East Quay development that enhances the marina and provides the best possible service to boat-owners – and at the moment it just isn’t happening.”