WEST Somerset District Council has paved the way for Minehead's new community hospital and the ambitious lifelong learning and leisure centre New Horizons to be built on land off Seaward Way in a £2.6 million land deal. Councillors at Wednesday's full council meeting gave their unanimous support to plans to buy some 11.5 acres of land between the community college and Seaward Way from the Crown Estate and a private trust. They were told terms had been agreed with agents acting for both landowners and the council would be taking a lead role in delivering the two innovative schemes. Deputy chief executive Rod Latham told the meeting the deal would make the council a pioneer in "joint working". He said the Government had already stressed that any new community hospitals should be linked with other facilities - West Somerset's proposals would be among the first in the country. Under the plans, the district council would acquire the land for development on behalf of both New Horizons and the Somerset Coast Primary Care Trust. It would also help deliver the buildings through a joint private finance initiative, meaning the entire development could be completed by the autumn of 2008. Mr Latham said: "From the inception of New Horizons the council has taken a leading role in the issue of land acquisition and officers have been in discussions with the relevant owners for some time. "The primary care trust has also been looking for a site for a new community hospital for Minehead, preferably on the edge of the town but within the development limit line. "As the New Horizons project is looking to link a range of functions together to promote, among other things, health and healthy living, and as the primary care trust is looking to develop the hospital as a more generic 'healthplex' and, as both schemes are hoping to run within similar timescales, it makes sense to consider linking the two together in some way. "This is most obviously achieved by developing both projects on the same site, preferably jointly and at the same time." Part of the costs of the schemes - which will include a replacement for Minehead's Aquasplash leisure pool - could be offset by giving over 3.2 acres of the site for housing, while the primary care trust has pledged to share the "holding costs" after the land is purchased. West Somerset Community College principal and chairman of the New Horizons group, Nick Swann, said it was vital everyone involved took a holistic approach to the developments. He said both schemes would be hugely beneficial to the community, but as far as New Horizons had been concerned, the main stumbling block to progress so far had been the acquisition of land. He told councillors: "If there is no land there is no New Horizons and we will have missed an opportunity for West Somerset. "Local people need and deserve the best possible services and we shouldn't settle for anything less than that." Mr Latham said the council had an opportunity to turn the vision into a reality, while council leader Cllr Steven Pugsley said the authority's role in securing the future of both schemes should not be understated. Councillors - who unanimously voted to go-ahead with the purchase of the land - publicly thanked Mr Swann, officers and members for helping to bring the schemes within grasp. Cllr Colin Hill told the meeting: "It seems an awful long time in coming but it's been well worth it. "We've been at the stage where it's almost fallen by the wayside, but the latest business plan looks very promising. "You get very few opportunities in life, especially at a small council like ours, and this is a once in a lifetime chance for West Somerset to get facilities other areas will be envious of." He said the New Horizons centre would be one of just three such ventures in the entire country and heralded plans to develop it in conjunction with the hospital as a "revolutionary idea". But he warned there may still be a bitter pill to swallow for some residents when the primary care trust came to sell off the existing Minehead Hospital building. "We have to make sure the trust has full support. What the existing hospital is eventually used for will affect the price it is sold for. "That means there may also be a price the community will have to pay and I hope that doesn't become a political football."