MINEHEAD Development Trust could have a second chance to apply for a £100,000 grant to help fund the old hospital community hub project, following the town council’s refusal to support the application at its meeting last week.
In a surprise move, there is a possibility that the council could look again at its decision as early as next month.
Councillors voted by eight votes to six not to back an application for Section 106 grant money for phase one of the trust’s plan to create a community hub in the listed building, raising concerns about a lack of lease and what they regarded as an inadequate business plan.
The trust’s response was that it was planning to explain its position to councillors at the authority’s March meeting and had not expected the matter to be discussed a month earlier when the trust was not represented.
Councillors supporting the application were planning to ask that the matter be put on the agenda for a future meeting, despite council rules that, once discussed, a subject could not be raised again for another six months unless there were exceptional circumstances.
And one of the minority councillors, Cllr Terry Venner, said after last week’s vote: “This is an urgent matter which should be looked at again but, to be honest, I’m not very optimistic.”
But this, Mayor of Minehead Cllr Jean Parbrook told the Free Press that it might be possible to arrange an extraordinary general meeting as early as next month at which the trust could put its case.
“It just needs two councillors to request an EGM and the deputy mayor and I would be happy to do that,” Cllr Parbrook said.