Somerset County Council has given its backing to three new schemes - including one in Minehead - designed to provide a home for adults living with autism or learning disabilities.

The council has been working with housing providers and NHS England to provide three new supported living sites, where adults with complex needs can receive on-site care while retaining a degree of independence.

The council has also identified sites in Bishops Lydeard and Yeovil where accommodation can be provided in the near future, under contracts worth more than £2.5 million.

Councillors have also pledged that further schemes along these lines will be considered in the years ahead.

In Minehead, up to seven individuals will be accommodated within the former Kingsway Guest House on the corner of King George Road and Ponsford Road.

The facility will be managed on the council’s behalf by Poole-based firm Purpose Social Homes, which was awarded planning permission to convert the former hotel by the district council in June 2021.

The facility will be targeted at people ‘with complex needs at exempt housing benefit rent levels’, and is likely to be fully operational by May.

In Bishops Lydeard, seven one- and two-bedroom bungalows will be provided off Taunton Road at affordable rent levels – located between the village’s centre and the new Moorland Gate development currently being constructed.

LiveWest was granted permission to build the bungalows - as part of a wider development dubbed ‘The Paddocks’ - by Somerset West and Taunton Council’s planning committee in January 2020, with all dwellings expected to be available from June 2022.

The new facilities will be run on five-year contracts by care providers, with the three contracts being worth a combined total of £2,569,960.

The council’s cabinet gave its unanimous backing to the proposals when it met in Taunton last week.

DANIEL MUMBY

Local democracy reporter