MINEHEAD Town Council has “serious aspirations” to take over the running of three of the town’s most important assets when West Somerset Council forms a new authority with Taunton Deane, it was revealed this week.
Minehead’s mayor, Cllr Jean Parbrook, confirmed that the town council has started the process by making an expression of interest which could lead to an asset transfer of Blenheim Gardens, Wellington Square and Parks Walk.
“We want control of things that matter to the town rather than have them managed by a new council from Taunton,” Cllr Parbrook told the Free Press. “Everyone says how well we look after our gardens and flower displays and we are taking over an increasing amount of work from West Somerset.
“For instance, we now look after the Alcombe roundabout area because we were disgusted by the way it originally looked. We also provide the Wellington Square flowers.
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“We have already taken over the toilets and people are remarking on the improvement.
“Taking over these three big assets from West Somerset and maintaining and improving them would involve a lot of extra work and considerable expenditure but we feel it would be well worth doing for the good of the town.”
She said that Wellington Square was “in a mess” and benches and paving slabs were in a poor state.
The overgrown condition of Park Walk had brought complaints from residents and while Blenheim Gardens was a major town centre attraction there was always room for improvement.
Stressing that a takeover would be a long-term project involving protracted negotiations with the West Somerset authority, Cllr Parbrook added: “It’s well worth looking into – and we really believe we could do the job better.”
The town council was told of the plan at its meeting on Tuesday when Cllr Parbrook revealed that “big expenditure could be coming up” after councillors had expressed concern about the amount of money the authority had in reserve – over £1.1 million.