Letter to the West Somerset Free Press

North Road car park in Minehead is part of the land passed to Minehead Town Council in 1911 being Blenheim Gardens. It is therefore subject to the covenants contained in the 1911 conveyance. The 1911 conveyance states that the land can only be used as a pleasure garden. This car park is clearly labelled shoppers car park with access to The Avenue.

That is clearly not ancillary to Blenheim Gardens and it should therefore be closed immediately and reinstated as part of Blenheim Gardens. To be ancillary it needs to be used only by people using the gardens not shopping (access to the Avenue needs to be closed) and it needs to be closed when the gardens are closed.

Additionally, money earned from the car park going into SWT coffers is definitely not ancillary to the gardens. Rent from the cafe going into SWT coffers is also not ancillary to the gardens as they are not reinvesting the money into the cafe and have in fact not spent anything meaningful in maintaining the cafe for decades. The car park and cafe are just cash cows for SWT, which is not compliant with the 1911 conveyance.

SWT will of course remain silent and, as with everything else of late, it will be shrouded in secrecy.

Let’s hope the new woman in charge, Cllr Ros Wyke, has a more open mind than her predecessors.

Steve Taylor

Minehead

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