UPGRADED accommodation is to be installed in Kilve Court Outdoor Education Centre after a Somerset Council planning committee unanimously approved the estate’s plans.

The outdoor education centre is run by Somerset Council through its subsidiary SSE Outdoors, with overnight visitors in its southern section currently staying in timber structures with an outside shower and toilet block.

Now, the council has given itself permission to replace the timber structures with shepherds huts, as well as installing new showers and an air source heat pump to provide green energy for the compound.

Each of the new shepherds huts will have enough space to accommodate three people, and they will all have indoor toilets.

The new shower block will be created to the east of the new units, with enough space for nine showers.

Cllr Rosemary Woods, whose Watchet and Stogursey division includes Kilve, expressed her support for the scheme, saying it represented ‘an improvement of the site’.

However, parish councillors in Kilve decided to take a neutral view on the application when they were consulted in January.

The plans were given the green light by the unitary council’s planning committee after less than 15 minutes of debate at a meeting held in Taunton.

Dulverton and Exmoor division Cllr Steven Pugsley described the application as ‘perfectly sound’.

Cllr Caroline Ellis, representing Bishops Hull and Taunton West, said: “It is fantastic that Somerset still has outdoor educational facilities.

“It is a brilliant place and they do amazing stuff.

“Long may it continue.”

Kilve Court, which is the head office base for all the SSE Outdoor centres, can accommodate 120 people and has a duty manager on site 24/7.

It has been delivering outdoor education and enrichment for the authority since 1962 and the original Georgian mansion has been sympathetically extended and updated to become SSE Outdoors’ flagship.