PLANS to drop the affordable homes element of a half-built Minehead housing estate after the developer went bust are being fought by one of the town’s Somerset councillors Andrew Hadley.

Cllr Hadley has demanded an application by receivers acting for a lender which invested in the enterprise should be decided by councillors in a debate open to the public and not by council planning officers behind closed doors.

Stratton Land Ltd was part-way through developing 70 homes on its Exmoor Gate site off Hopcott Road when it went into administration in May of last year with debts of more than £36 million.

The Free Press understands shortly before entering administration, Stratton transferred the site to Bridgwater Homes (Hopcott) Ltd, which five months later in October went into liquidation.

The two companies were run by Sebastian Arbis, aged 67, who was the sole director in both cases.

Now, receivers Savills has asked Somerset Council to drop a requirement for 25 of the Exmoor Gate properties to be ‘affordable’.

Cllr Hadley said it appeared Savills was attempting to maximise the amount of money it could obtain from the site for the lender, Katch Investment Management Ltd.

He said it was not a receiver’s job to act like a commercial developer by trying to make large profits to the detriment of Minehead residents who were ‘crying out for affordable housing’.

Cllr Hadley said finishing the estate and keeping the affordable housing units should still make a net profit of nearly £2 million for a developer.

Taking out the affordable homes could see that profit rise to £3.5 million, with a further £1 million earned because Katch Investment was ‘charging itself’ eight per cent interest on its investment.

Cllr Hadley said the application was ‘skewed’ by Savills in the interests of Katch Investment and it needed proper scrutiny by elected councillors to ensure any questions or decisions were properly addressed and explained.

He said the ‘real issue’ with the development appeared to be a lack of due diligence by Stratton Land when buying the site to judge if it was deliverable within budget and profit margins, and by Katch when deciding to lend its funding.

Cllr Hadley said market conditions changed due to the ‘considerable time’ it took Stratton to start building after gaining planning approval.

Had it been done immediately, market conditions would not have been a problem.

Cllr Hadley said provision of affordable housing in West Somerset had fallen ‘woefully short’, meaning every new affordable house which could be brought was extremely important.

To not deliver any on the Exmoor Gate estate would make the position in West Somerset worse for families who wanted to live, work, and prosper in the district.

Cllr Hadley said there was bias in the assumptions and viability report produced by Savills to make the argument for abandoning the affordable homes commitment

He said: “This information is not independent and will be swayed toward their argument and must be scrutinised and verified stringently to give the best advice to the planning committee.”