Community hub at major Highbridge development could be scrapped
Plans for a new community hub at Highbridge’s Isleport Grove development are in doubt after councils declined to take on its long-term management.
A planned community hub at a major housing development in Highbridge could be scrapped – because no-one wants to run it once it’s been built.
Countryside Partnerships is currently constructing the Isleport Grove development at the town’s eastern edge, which will eventually comprise 248 homes between Isleport Lane and the M5.
The Brentwood-based developer secured planning permission in November 2023 to deliver a community hub on Barley Street within the centre of the development, which would include a retail unit and a wide range of rooms which could be hired out by local community groups.
But Vistry Devon South West (the developer’s parent company) has now applied to remove the hub and replace it with public open space, claiming that “no end user can be secured”.
Under the legal agreements signed when outline planning permission was granted, the community hub would be delivered by Countryside Partnerships and then transferred to either the town council or Somerset Council at zero cost.
Burnham and Highbridge Town Council debated the future of the facility in January 2024, ultimately deciding that the two towns already had sufficient community facilities and that taking on the new facility would be “an extra burden on the council”.
Councillor Sharon Perry told Burnham-on-Sea.com: “It’s not far from other facilities – I can’t see how we can take on a community hall at the moment.
“They need to do something, bearing in mind the large number of people that will live there.
“It should be a community asset but not necessarily one that we run.”
Community groups can currently hire the following facilities in and around Highbridge:
Highbridge Community Hall on the B3139 Market Street
Morland Close Community Hub on Trowbridge Close
Morland Hall on Pearce Drive (with permission for a replacement facility being secured in February 2025)
Southwell Gardens Community Hall on the A38 Church Street
The YMCA on the A38 Huntspill Road
Countryside Partnerships stated at the time that it had discussed the issue with Somerset Council but the latter was “not able to take it on at this time”.
Instead of providing the community hub, Vistry intends for the site to be turned into public open space, with a wide range of children’s play equipment and new trees and hedges being planted.
Somerset Council is expected to make a decision on these proposals by the late-spring.