VULCAN Road car park in Minehead will be sold off to fund a district council wish-list of projects - but councillors have again stopped short of declaring the site will be sold to a major supermarket chain. Instead, after a marathon five-hour meeting, West Somerset District Council agreed to sell the site for either retail and or tourism/leisure uses while retaining enough land to create a 12-space coach park on the site. But as the clock ticked towards 11.15pm, just 13 votes were recorded - ten for and three against - when it came to the crucial decision as to who would be in the running to develop the land. Independent Cllr Jess Griffith unsuccessfully appealed for the site to be used for a mixed development including business units. Instead, councillors backed council leader Conservative Cllr Steven Pugsley's call for five specific companies to be included in the running. These will be the four developers who took part in a public exhibition at the Hobby Horse pub, Minehead, earlier this year and who have already been shortlisted for their retail proposals for the site, including one acting on behalf of supermarket giant Asda-Walmart. A surprise fifth contender was named for the first time at Wednesday's meeting as Adventure Golfs, a company specialising in miniature golf and adventure play areas. However, councillors have already been warned that the golf enterprise would be unlikely to generate even a quarter of the £8 to £11 million price tag which a retail developed would be willing to pay. Cllr Pugsley told the meeting: "The easy course is one where we do nothing. There are very difficult decisions we have to balance up. "We have to balance the damaging impact on the town versus the added attraction of Minehead as a shopping destination as a whole. "I hope I am right that the outcome of this will be to the benefit of West Somerset. If it is not I will retire quite happily." But the decision was branded as "a bad day for democracy in West Somerset" by opposition councillors, many of whom left before the end of the meeting believing their opposition to the plans was pointless when faced with a majority of ruling Tory councillors who supported the proposals. Labour Cllr Simon Stokes said he suspected the real debate had already taken place among the Tory members and labelled Cllr Pugsley a puppet- master: "You can see Cllr Pugsley pulling the string and the blank faced puppets opposite him raise their hands in support." His comment attracted loud applause from the 100-strong members of the public who had packed into the West Somerset Community College, in Minehead, for the meeting. They heckled councillors throughout the meeting, leaving many Conservative members looking more than a little uncomfortable when they were warned voters would get the last laugh at the ballot box at the next district council elections in May 2007. Independent Cllr David Gliddon added fuel to the fire by saying: "Maybe what you have done here tonight can be undone in May 2007 as the planning process might delay those of you who are set on destroying our town." It is widely believed it will be at least 18 months to two years before a single brick can be laid at Vulcan Road car park, as councillors have yet to decide which development they favour and a planning application is likely to face the full scrutiny of a public inquiry. But as opposition councillors claimed the sell-off would leave Minehead facing a deficit in its parking provision of at least 100 cars a day - estimated by Cllr Griffith to cost the town some £500,000 of lost revenue every summer - Tory members were adamant they would be able to persuade Somerset County Council to provide the shortfall of spaces on its own land alongside the railway. Conservative Cllr Tony Knight said Vulcan Road car park was often empty when he drove past and claimed that Watchet would still not have its marina if the council had listened to public opposition at the time those plans were first mooted. "I fear for Minehead if we don't move forward. I would like a reason to come to Minehead other than to visit elderly relatives," Cllr Knight said. His comments caused a storm among the assembled members of public, while chairman Conservative Cllr Barbara Child risked the wrath of councillors when she prevented a handful of opposition councillors re-entering the debate and pushed for a vote instead. She said the council had had a full debate and had taken on board the many comments made by members of the public - who then heckled her by accusing the council of hearing but then ignoring their views. Sarah Griffith warned councillors about the dangers of selling off assets rather than using the millions stored in council bank accounts and said it was short-sighted to sell land for a supermarket when a decision had yet to be taken on a site for the redevelopment of Minehead Hospital. She said: "If you vote Asda today it could be no A and E tomorrow." Well-known local businessman Derek Merson also entered the fray saying more land was needed for industry and that he was worried the council's decisions were doing more harm then good. Meanwhile, chairman of campaign group DIRECT, Graham Sizer, accused the council of "putting two fingers up to tourism" by agreeing to sell Vulcan Road car park and by approving a controversial car parking strategy already branded as flawed by DIRECT. He said councillors would be flying in the face of police advice by approving the car parking strategy when it took no account of on-street parking and the impact the likely introduction of decriminalised parking measures would have. Liberal Democrat Cllr Peter Humber again branded the strategy nothing more than a review and said added: "If we were given a paper with accurate facts then I would be happy to support it. "At the moment there is no way I can support it because I think the whole strategy is fatally flawed." Cllr Stokes said supporting the strategy would be "total lunacy", and there were gasps of disbelief from the public when the council's regeneration and policy manager Trevor Shaw informed the meeting that details of discussions held in Dulverton had been left out of the consultation findings as only "a clique of town councillors" had participated and not a cross-section of the local community. Liberal Democrat Cllr Martyn Snell added: "I am desperately sad about what's happening here tonight. "Think back to May and what happened at the county council election. Think about what happened at the by-election in Old Cleeve. "I was accused in a free publication of bringing shame to West Somerset. Please councillors, don't bring shame on West Somerset." After the meeting, Somerset county councillor for Minehead Liberal Democrat Cllr Ian Galloway claimed the district council was trying to pass the buck for car parking. "They are selling off their own car parks for their own gain then hoping to pressurise the county council into providing parking facilities on the market site," he said.
