WATCHET will get a new community leisure centre, a 70-space public car park and a main road traffic-calming scheme if the latest proposals for the redevelopment of the former Wansbrough paper mill site are approved by Somerset West and Taunton planners.

But amendments submitted by the developers this week revealed a major rethink to the scheme, which includes scrapping a 60-bed care-home, cutting down the numbers of homes and assisted living apartments in a residential care village, and reducing the space available for new businesses.

Controversy has surrounded the site since DS Smith abruptly closed the paper mill a week before Christmas 2015, making 176 workers unemployed. There had been paper-making on the site for 265 years.

The main buildings were demolished by Huntley Wood Developments in 2018 and the site has remained empty ever since.

A spokesman for JB Planning Associates on behalf of current owners the Wansbrough Mill Development Company, said the latest changes in the scheme were the result of input from local residents and community groups and the district and county councils.

The plan was to create a high quality scheme on the brown field site “which is respectful of existing heritage and landscape”.

The spokesman added: “The main aim of the redevelopment is to create a sustainable attractively-landscaped extension to the town. The development will provide a range of high quality family homes and flats where people will live and take a pride in their environment.

“It will also offer new publicly accessible open space, including new recreational routes, a linear park, children’s play area and a riverside walk.”

Plans remain for a tourist apart-hotel, and a visitor interpretation centre. But the number of homes on the site has been reduced from 400 to 350 and assisted living apartments cut from 160 to 80.

A total of 8,000 square metres of space designated for employment enterprises has been cut to 5,000 square metres.

A new traffic-calming scheme has been proposed for Brendon Road in conjunction with a redesigned junction and pedestrian-only access.

Local residents have objected to the amended plans. They included Guy and Mary Banks, of Brendon Road, who had concerns over the height of a four-storey building, thought to be the apart-hotel, near the main entrance of the site.

They asked where people moving to the new properties would find work locally, and had concerns about the impact of the construction work, access to the site during building and the noise levels.

The amended plans will be considered by the district council planning committee at a future meeting.

Find out about planning applications that affect you by visiting the Public Notice Portal.

For the full report, see today’s Free Press.