CRIES of 'foul play' were voiced this week over plans to build a grounds maintenance depot and skip storage facility on part of a school playing field in the heart of a Minehead residential area.

Nearby residents claim the depot would be better suited to an industrial estate and fear it could compromise the road safety of local children.

They believe many of their neighbours are unaware of the application as the postal address of the school is in a different road to the proposed entrance of the depot.

There is also dismay that the applicant, site owner, key consultee and planning authority is all part of the same organisation - Somerset County Council.

The authority is hoping to secure permission to convert what it classes as "an informal playing field area" at Minehead Middle School into a depot for its ground maintenance staff in West Somerset.

The authority claims the site off King Edward Road would only be used by two groundsmen, one van and "occasional visits from a skip lorry" to collect skips full of grass cuttings and gardening waste.

The county council concedes the grassed area earmarked is mown regularly but maintains it is only used "very infrequently for informal play only" and the development will not affect school sports provision.

But Minehead Mayor Cllr Simon Stokes said the proposal flew in the face of both local and national policies on the development of school playing fields, while his deputy Cllr Norman Hercock said he was "disgusted" by the plan.

Cllr Stokes said: "If the area is completely redundant, surely it would be better to sell the land for a higher value use, such as for three or four houses, and then to plough that money back into the school?

"The entrance will be opposite the West Somerset Nursery, in a residential area off school grounds. It is hardly the most appropriate place to have skip lorries operating."

Cllr Hercock said he shared the concerns of residents about additional traffic and noise and accused the county council of trying to push through the application.

"It is a quiet residential area on the edge of a conservation area and I am concerned about the thoughts behind this idea," he said. "The entrance to the depot will be in King Edward Road, opposite a nursery.

"I think the county council had hoped to get this through without too much fuss, but I am sorry, alarm bells are ringing everywhere."

The closest resident to the proposed depot, Hein Burger, of Sherwood in King Edward Road, said he only found out about the application by chance and said the first the neighbouring nursery knew was when a formal notification document dated March 30 arrived in the post.

"I spoke to a few district and county councillors who had read the public announcement in the Free Press but, because of the wording of the proposal, did not realise its real location was in King Edward Road and not in Ponsford Road, which is only the postal address."

Mr Burger added: "This depot will be in a residential area and will cause extra traffic in King Edward Road, which is not very wide and is also right near the nursery school.

"Cars of those who work in the school are parked in the road and parents delivering and collecting their offspring at the school park here during the day.

"I think many people living close to this location do not realise what is about to happen if they do not inform the planning authority of their opinions."

The final decision on the application will lie with Somerset County Council, which is also the local education authority.

West Somerset Council is only a consultee, but Minehead North member Cllr Doug Ross is so concerned about the application he has asked for the plan to be discussed at the next meeting of the district council's planning committee, with the support of committee chairman Cllr Tony Knight and vice-chairman Cllr Ian Melhuish.

Opponent Jane Wheeler, of Whitegate Road, said the proposed site was identified in the district council's Local Plan as a playing field and strict policies restricted its use to either recreation or sport.

She said the Local Plan also stipulated that if an area of outdoor playing space was lost for a recreation or sport-related development, an equivalent site had to be made available to replace the original.

She said the application failed to satisfy any of the planning criteria in the Local Plan and criticised the choice of location.

In a formal objection to the proposal she said: "King Edward Road is an unclassified residential road.

"As such, a land use which requires regular HGV movements to and from the application site is clearly not compatible with the status of this road nor the residential use of the immediate area.

"Until recently, the site in question played host to a mature Indian bean tree. A rare species, with the tree in question, by all accounts, being the largest growing in West Somerset.

"Suddenly, at the end of February, it was removed. No-one could understand why, but then a month later we receive the notification of this planning application. Coincidence?"

Mrs Wheeler said she was concerned that, if a change of use was granted, there would be nothing preventing the site being used for any industrial purpose or more intensive operations.

She also questioned why the highways authority - part of Somerset County Council - had not formally objected to the plans.

In the application, Chris Winn of the county council said there were "a couple of issues" relating to the highway that had to be resolved, including the proposed access having no dropped kerbs and appearing not to have been used for vehicles before.

He also accepted the area was "likely to experience a lot of pedestrian movements, especially involving small children, possibly unsupervised" due to the proximity of the nursery, school and surrounding homes.

But he said the site had good links with Minehead and a replacement depot urgently had to be found.

"The current depot is situated at West Somerset Community College and is in a similar configuration to the proposed depot," he said.

"The existing depot is due to be lost very soon, as the New Horizons development proposed the new Minehead Hospital in the current location of the depot.

"The site at Minehead Middle School was chosen as it is in an area of the school that is used very infrequently for informal play only.

"The sports provision for the school is elsewhere on site, so the proposals do not affect their statutory requirements."