FEARS were voiced yesterday (Thursday) of "sneak tactics" by West Somerset District Council to ensure it won public inquiry permission to go ahead with a £5.1 million marina for Watchet.

Campaigners against the project were alarmed to discover the authority had secretly amended its plans for redeveloping the town's harbour.

The news came just 12 days before the inquiry was due to open, and the council was unable to say when the revised scheme would be publicly available.

Objectors were equally furious when they found housing development proposed for the town's East Quay would not be considered by the inquiry.

The East Wharf proposal was always the most controversial part of a scheme which divided opinion among townsfolk.

Now, the council is set to ask its own planning committee to decide the future of the East Quay when marina developers Dean and Dyball Ltd submit a planning application.

Committee members would be expected to reach an objective decision despite knowing the council stood to lose £1.5 million of promised funding without the new homes and would consequently no longer be able to finance the marina.

Rodney Cole, joint co-ordinator of pressure group SWAMP, said yesterday: "We can only speculate as to the real reason for this approach by the council.

"Everybody knows the marina cannot be built without the East Quay housing estate subsidising it.

"Everybody knows the harbour and the East Quay have always been inextricably linked and will continue to be so."

Mr Cole said it was an incredible assertion by the council not to include the East Quay development in its application for a Harbour Revision Order.

He failed to understand how the authority could say it was a separate planning issue and not any business of the Government-appointed inspector who would conduct the public inquiry into the HRO application.

Mr Cole said: "We are advised that an appeal against such a selective application for the HRO would have a firm legal basis.

"Watchet has consistently voiced its opposition to housing on the East Quay. By removing it from the HRO application, the council are attempting to deny the inspector the right to independently appraise a huge and vital part of the whole scheme.

"Is it because the changes to the East Quay proposals that have recently been hinted at will be even less acceptable to the people of Watchet than before?"

Mr Cole said the council's statement of case to support its HRO application contained "the usual mixture of assumptions and generalisations that we have come to expect."

However, the council's written submission stated approval of a Harbour Revision Order which included the East Wharf development would effectively grant outline planning consent for the housing.

The council claimed the housing proposals were in any case not sufficiently developed to be included in the order.

It said inclusion would remove the right of opponents to separately object to the plans.

The authority said: "As a matter of principle, the council believe this to be wrong.

"They are of the view development on the East Wharf requires a specific planning consent with a separate opportunity available to objectors to comment upon and make representations with the application at that stage.

"The detailed application will be made by Dean and Dyball following further consultations with local residents in order to incorporate as far as possible the preferences and requirements of the local community in relation to the detailed design.

"It will be the responsibility of the planning authority to consider the application on its merits at that time in accordance with the proper statutory requirements imposed by the planning legislation.

"Although the council recognises the question will be raised at the inquiry, it is their position that the prime purpose of the inquiry is to examine objections into the HRO alone."

The authority said "various modifications" to the original East Wharf plans had been identified by Dean and Dyball, including omission of a public house, public access on the East Quay, and relocating the homes towards the West Somerset Railway line to increase the area's accessibility.

It said Dean and Dyball was selected as the preferred marina developer partly because its bid included the smallest number of harbourside homes.

The council said it would propose "various modifications" to the draft HRO in response to some of the objections already received.

A new copy of the HRO application was being prepared and would be available "in advance of the inquiry".

The council's statement showed the marina when complete would accommodate up to 250 pontoon moorings in an "inner harbour" for boats between 23 feet and 43 feet long.

All vessels currently using the harbour would continue to be able to do so.

However, the marina would only permanently retain water in the eastern part of the present harbour.