MINEHEAD’S Blenheim Gardens café, scheduled to re-open after four years on April 1, will not be selling alcohol and will close at the same time as the park, Minehead town councillors have been told.

Objectors to the plans to lease the dilapidated building to Minehead businessman William Wynn feared that the café would become a late-night music and drinking venue and spoil the tranquillity of the park.

Future strict controls on the way the café must be run were revealed to town councillors at last week’s meeting by Minehead’s county councillor Mandy Chilcott in a letter written to Mr Wynn by Somerset West and Taunton Council.

Mr Wynn was told that planning officers would be visiting the site next week “to further acquaint themselves with the project and to confirm which elements do/do not require planning permission.”

The letter added: “We note the planning application refers to opening hours at the premises and as landlord we would like to make our position clear on this matter. Our expectation is that the café will be open only when the park is generally open to the public.

“We would not permit the café to be accessible to the public outside of these times.”

Cllr Chilcott told the town council that the district authority said that while no direct reference was made to the sale of alcohol in Mr Wynn’s planning application “there has never been landlord consent for the sale of alcohol.

“Any such permission would be a matter that requires landlord consent and licensing committee approval.

“The above reflects our position and we are simply reaffirming it for the avoidance of doubt.”

Earlier, Steve Martyn, a leading campaigner against Mr Wynn’s development, claimed that the original agreement to lease “has been watered down in a vain attempt to get the café open by April 1.”

He said: “The original lease agreement, signed off in November 2021 is in tatters. The legal position now must surely be to cancel the lease and re-tender. This is particularly important given that the lease, if signed, is for 20 years without a break clause. Utter madness!”

Mr Martyn said the “No Alcohol” rule had its own sign in the gardens. He added that campaigners were pressing that any agreement should forbid the sale or consumption of alcohol in the cafe or gardens and stipulate that the café should have the same opening hours as the gardens and no later.

He said that the café should not be used for private functions or commercial business and Public Space Protection Orders should be in place before the lease is signed.

As reported in last week’s Free Press, Mr Wynn confirmed that he would only make a statement on the controversial development once the café was up and running. He added: “I am just trying to do what is best for the town.”

He was awarded the lease in a confidential agreement with Somerset West and Taunton Council, after what the council described as “a robust, fair, and transparent process to select a tenant who provided ‘best value’”.