“OVER the moon, thrilled, totally excited and can’t wait to get on with the job” was the Watchet Onion Collective group’s reaction to this week’s news that it has been granted £5 million Coastal Community funding to regenerate the town’s East Quay.

The money will finance a futuristic development of holiday accommodation, an art gallery, workshops, exhibition space and a restaurant. It is planned that work will now start in the autumn and the flagship project should be completed in 2021.

Local MP Ian-Liddell-Grainger hailed the grant as “the best news the town has had in decades”.

The future of the former dockyard has been uncertain since the original developers pulled out in 2004. Since then, unsuccessful schemes have included high-rise flats and a hotel in the shape of an ocean liner.

The Onion Collective, a community interest company which has been West Somerset Council’s preferred bidder since 2015, claims the scheme will bring an estimated £6.7 million additional tourist spend to the area.

It is also hoped that the project will generate 37 new jobs, safeguard 17 jobs, bring in 70 temporary construction workers and provide 109 indirect jobs connected to the tourist industry.

Last month, West Somerset Council agreed to provide a £1.5m bridging loan for the project until negotiations with the Coastal Community Fund were complete.

The council had granted outline planning consent for the development in 2018 and also approved a lease on a third of the quayside. Most of the remainder is used as a boatyard by Watchet Harbour Marina.

There was also powerful endorsement from the South West Design Review Panel which described the East Quay project as “a fabulous scheme that deserves to be a triumph”.

An Onion Collective spokesman said this week that the decision, made by the Government’s Coastal Community Fund “shows the huge level of support they have for community-led regeneration, where local people have collaborated to create truly ambitious and game-changing plans for sustainable economic growth and to provide jobs”.

For the full report, buy today’s Free Press (March 29).