RESIDENTS have reacted with delight after a controversial plan for a service station off the A39 between Dunster and Minehead was this week refused.

Dorset-based Forelle Estates Ltd wanted to build a petrol filling station on a 1.7-acre site off the Ellicombe roundabout.

The development would have included a Costa coffee drive-thru, a convenience store, an electric vehicle (EV) charging hub, and vehicle valeting services.

Sarah Stanbury, speaking for the Ellicombe Protection Group which fought the plans, said: “We are pleased the planning authority have made a ‘common sense’ decision as well as standing by their own, and national, policies and not buckling under pressure from a large developer who only weeks ago threatened to appeal a refusal.

“There was no proven need for any of the facilities.

“We are obviously happy and relieved to learn the council have refused this absurd proposal.”

Minehead Conservation Society chairman Sally Bainbridge said: “I could not be more pleased with this decision.

“This development would have had a hugely detrimental impact on the character and appearance of the open countryside outside the development line and spoilt the attractive entry into Minehead.

“Furthermore, it would have impacted badly on the town’s existing services.”

Somerset council received more than 850 letters about Forelle’s planning application, 718 objecting to it and 130 in support.

Minehead town and Dunster parish councillors also strongly opposed the development.

Planning officer Joe Yardley said it represented an ‘unsustainable, out-of-boundary commercial development’ which would cause ‘unacceptable landscape harm, highway safety risks, and amenity impacts’.

He said the plans failed the required ‘sequential test’, where a developer has to show there were no other suitable and available sites closer to the town centre.

Mr Yardley said the development would introduce ‘substantially more intensive and urbanised’ activity into what is currently a predominantly open and visually transitional edge of settlement landscape.