PROTESTERS against the granting of a controversial 20-year lease on the now-derelict café in Minehead’s Blenheim Gardens plan to appeal to the Local Government Ombudsman after Somerset West and Taunton Council’s Community Scrutiny Committee decided not to investigate the case.

Campaigners had asked the committee at their meeting last Wednesday to look into the circumstances surrounding the granting of a lease to William Wynn of Minehead’s Bar 21 over two years ago. They claimed that since then, nothing had been done to repair the once-popular café, which closed in 2018.

But chairman Cllr Libby Lisgo told protesters that the scrutiny committee would not get involved. She said: “I can’t remember any other case where the public has asked the committee to scrutinise something. It’s not part of what we would normally do. But I do understand it is a major issue in Minehead and there is a lot of bad feeling.”

Cllr Lisgo said the case had already been discussed by the district council’s executive and there had been an investigation by the leader of the council. A formal complaint had also been made and had been refused. She believed some of the problem was caused by information being classed as commercially confidential and so not available to the public.

Cllr Lisgo advised protesters to take their case to the Local Government Ombudsman for an independent view of whether things had been done properly. She said Minehead Town Council had approached SWAT to discuss eventually taking on the café and gardens as a community asset “which is ultimately the kind of solution we are looking for”.

After the meeting, campaigners confirmed that they would be contacting the Ombudsman and would also be supporting other courses of action, including the café being taken over by the town council.

Campaigner Steve Martyn told the committee he was speaking for many people in Minehead who were unhappy about the situation.

He said they had tried three times to get answers to questions concerning the lease given to Mr Wynn but without success.

Mr Wynn was invited to comment.

Read a full report of the meeting in this week's West Somerset Free Press