THE leader of a council which permanently closed the B3191 road to Watchet has called for the town to be designated a ‘coastal transport centre’.

It comes as a decision is awaited on a £41 million bid for Government funding to reopen the road between Watchet and Blue Anchor.

It was temporarily closed in 2023 because of coastal cliff subsidence and the closure later made permanent when the near-bankrupt council said it did not have funds to do anything about it.

The outcome of a Structure Fund bid to reroute the road away from the cliffs was expected last month, but is now likely to come before Christmas.

Somerset Cllr Bill Revans said the council’s local transport plan which identifies key priorities for buses, rail, cycling, and road safety across the county was currently being finalised.

The plan had Minehead designated as a ‘coastal transport centre’ due to its level of housing development and status as a ‘tourist hotspot and popular location’.

Watchet, meanwhile was classed as a ‘secondary rural centre’, where residents were ‘likely to travel further afield, typically by car’, to access education, employment, and other services.

Cllr Revans said he wanted Watchet to be made a priority for future transport investment and cited its ‘recent challenges’ and the wider need to improve access to West Somerset.

He said: “I am very aware of the difficulties Watchet has had with its transport infrastructure, particularly with the Cleeve Hill ongoing road closure and the need to find a strategic solution to that, hence the bid we have put in to the Government.

“If we can find a way of boosting that, I think that would be very helpful.”

Council transport policy manager Matthew Prince said he would check the data and make sure Watchet had not been mis-categorised.