THE Government should underwrite some of the cost of making Watchet harbour safe, local MP Ian Liddell-Grainger said this week.

He plans to urge the Government to treat Watchet as “an exceptional case” as Somerset West and Taunton Council prepares to pay £740,000 for design work and repairing the marina wall alongside the East Quay.

More funding will have to be found in due course for a permanent repair to the sea wall at Splash Point which was breached before Christmas.

Mr Liddell-Grainger said the spending was inevitably going to put a strain on the local authority’s finances.

“But there is no option but to carry out the work – and as rapidly as possible,” he said.

“The one lesson that has been learned from other cases like this around the coast is that if a relatively small problem is left untreated it very soon develops into a large one.

“And in Watchet’s case, if the harbour or marina walls fail, the impact on the town will be enormous.”

He added that an engineering study had shown that, although the harbour apparently sat in a relatively sheltered location in the Bristol Channel, it was actually exposed to massive wave forces generated in the Atlantic.

“I think everyone realises the seriousness of the situation and I am therefore more than happy to do whatever I can to persuade the Government to provide funding to underwrite at least some of the cost of repairs,” he said.

“This is an exceptional combination of events which has created an exceptional risk and I therefore feel the Government should treat it as an exceptional case.”

On Wednesday, the district council’s executive accepted a recommendation from localities manager Chris Hall that £540,000 should be raised to fund the East Quay wall repair.

It recommended the full council to add the money to the coming financial year’s capital budget, and to add a further £200,000 to the current year’s capital programme – £100,000 for design work on the marina wall and a similar amount for developing a permanent sea defence at Splash Point.

The money needed to permanently rebuild the Splash Point wall will be discussed after the design work has been completed.