THE National Trust is to commission independent research to gauge the economic impact of a controversial plan to open a cafe at Dunster Castle.

Earlier this month the Free Press exclusively revealed that some traders in the village had set up an action group and launched a petition to fight the proposal, claiming it would turn the grade one listed castle into a one-stop visitor attraction.

They accused the trust of "pulling up the drawbridge" and threatening their livelihoods, fearing that visitors would bypass the honeypot tourist village completely.

The row has continued to rumble, with posters appearing in many shops, visitors being lobbied to sign the petition and the action group conducting a survey to demonstrate the level of trade it believes the village will lose.

Now the trust, which was given the castle in 1976 by the Luttrell family, has announced it is to appoint consultants to carry out its own research.

They will be charged not only with looking at the economic impact of the proposed 50-seater cafe, but will also draw up detailed costings of the scheme and consider the planning and historic building issues of the earmarked potential sites.

The castle's property manager William Wake told the Free Press this week that the economic impact would be a major consideration.

And he admitted that it would be pointless to press ahead with a planning application if it was unlikely to succeed - the castle lies outside Dunster's core retail area as defined in Exmoor National Park's planning policies restricting new shops or commercial development.

Mr Wake said he was keen to consult the action group on the structure of the research and the questions that would be asked, and the results - which he hoped would be available by October - would influence whether the proposal was taken forward.

Preliminary work already carried out by Bournemouth University has led the trust to believe that a cafe within the castle grounds could increase the 115,000 customers it currently attracts by a further 10,000.

Mr Wake said the castle needed to increase its revenue to cover its £550,000 annual running costs.

And he said a cafe on site was the most frequently requested facility by visitors.

But Christine Moore from Chapel House Crafts and Tea Room in West Street said the results of the survey carried out by the action group - of which she is a member - had shown that around 50 per cent of visitors would use the castle cafe rather than going into the village for refreshments.

She said the action group had not released the full results of the study because it wanted to discuss it with the trust but had been refused a meeting - a claim denied by Mr Wake who said his door was always open.

"We want to get round the table and try to work together to find other ways of helping the castle to increase its revenue," said Mrs Moore.

"But we are being told that we must wait until the trust has carried out its further research.

"We want to move forward and find ways of making the tourist cake bigger but we still firmly believe that opening a cafe at the castle is not the way to do it.

"And we are determined to continue to fight the proposal."

Mrs Moore said support from visitors and local people was growing and she had collected 1,000 signatures for the petition in her business alone.

"When we have collected 10,000 signatures we will present the petition to the trust and we are well on the way to reaching that figure."

But fellow trader Rob Ricketts, who runs The Crooked Window in the High Street, said he was concerned about the negative impact of the campaign against the cafe.

"I am neither for nor against this proposal by the trust and I believe a significant number of traders are of a similar opinion," said Mr Ricketts.

"But my primary concern is that the poster campaign, the petition and the survey can be seen as unfriendly and not conducive to the 'Dunster experience' that visitors have come to expect.

"Traditionally, this has always been seen as a friendly village and I don't think what is happening is helping our image."