THE Avenue in Minehead is set for a £25,000 facelift later this year under plans unveiled by the town’s BID business improvement group. The scheme will involve additional planting, bunting and Christmas lighting.

In the meantime, another 50 decorative baskets will be added to the summer flower displays and street decorations to increase colour and interest in the town centre.

Minehead’s Business Improvement District (BID) project was launched in July 2018 with a five-year plan which is being supported by levy payments from more than 200 local businesses.

It is part of a countrywide initiative aimed at improving the attraction to shoppers of town centres where the retail sector is under increasing pressure from out-of-town stores and online trading.

And a new “major tourist attraction” could be coming to West Somerset as part of an effort to increase visitors to the area.

Details of what type of attraction it would be, or where it would be based, have not been released, but Somerset West and Taunton Council has made it a priority to bring it to the area within the next decade.

But the council believes such an attraction would “reduce dependency locally upon the current tourism offer” while ensuring more people from outside Somerset will come to the area.

It also hopes such an attraction will help to deliver improvements to the existing road and rail network – as well as a possible hovercraft link to Wales and Ireland.

Full reports on this and The Avenue project are in today’s Free Press.