Future of Watchet paper mill site uncertain ten years after its closure
A decade after the historic Wansborough paper mill closed, redevelopment plans remain stalled as Watchet waits for a way forward
The former site of a Somerset paper mill faces an uncertain future ten years after its closed its doors for good.
The Wansborough paper mill, which lies off the B3191 Brendon Road in Watchet, had been producing paper and other associated products since 1652 – eight years before the restoration of Britain’s monarchy.
The mill (which changes numerous times over the next 300 years) was once the largest UK producer of coreboard, a stiff material similar to cardboard used in packaging and labelling.
The site closed just before Christmas 2015 at a loss of more than 170 local jobs, with its final owner, the DS Smith group, taking a £30m write-down as a result.
Since then, the site has lain largely dormant as numerous different schemes to regenerate the area have been discussed, ranging from a major housing scheme to utilising the area for a new bypass.
Ten years on from its closure, the site remains the largest brownfield site in the former West Somerset area, crying out for redevelopment while commercial house-builders focus on greenfield sites elsewhere in Watchet and in the neighbouring village of Williton.
But Base for Life, a community housing company set up in the town, is looking to break the deadlock, pushing for new homes which meet genuine local need and breathe new life in Watchet’s economy, which has floundered in light of the indefinite closure of the B3191 Cleeve Hill towards Blue Anchor.
The non-profit company aims to convert disused land or buildings into rented properties, which will remain in community ownership – similar to what the Frome Area Community Land Trust intends to do as part of the much- trumpeted Mayday Saxonvale scheme in Frome.
The group had “made connections” with Tameer Homes, the Croydon-based company which has owned the paper mill site since December 2018, having purchased the land for £4m (according to the Land Registry).
Tameer Homes put forward plans in August 2019 to redevelop the site, delivering up to 350 new homes (including up to 80 assisted living flats) along with a hotel, leisure facilities, business units and a new public car park.
These proposals sat largely dormant during the coronavirus pandemic, during which time Huntley Wood Investments Ltd. secured permission from Somerset West and Taunton Council to use a small portion at the western edge of the site for a battery energy storage facility.
Around the same time, Somerset County Council commissioned a study from WSP into reducing coastal erosion at Blue Anchor and Watchet, with the intention to protect both existing properties and the crucial B3191.
This study (published in August 2020) led to the approval of a £3.3m scheme to install rock armour at the base of the cliffs at Blue Anchor Bay, protecting the road and the former Blue Anchor pub (now the Anchor’s Drop holiday business).
The same study identified numerous options to either reroute the Watchet end of the road inland or to build a new bypass to take holiday-making traffic away from the town centre.
One such option involved extending the paper mill’s access road, building a new bridge over the West Somerset Railway and Washford River, and connecting with Cleeve Hill near the Warren Bay holiday village – at a projected cost of between £50m and £72m.
This option was not considered viable by the council at the time of the report’s publication, and was not selected as the authority’s ‘preferred solution’ when a lengthy section of the Cleeve Hill road was closed indefinitely in January 2023.
As 2023 rolled forward, the site came to the attention of London-based developer Stratton Land Ltd., which at the time was working to deliver 71 new homes at the Exmoor Gate site on the A39 Hopcott Road in Minehead.
The developer secured planning permission from the then-newly formed Somerset Council in September 2023 to store topsoil from the Minehead estate on the paper mill site, using the soil to raise key areas out of the floodplain to make redevelopment a little bit easier.
Stratton indicated in August 2023 that it intended to purchase the site from Tameer and would seek to deliver a similar number of homes as part of a revised planning application.
But these plans went up in smoke as the Exmoor Gate site ran into problems, with Stratton persuading the council in February to reduce its agreed contribution towards a new Minehead community centre in the town due to the cost of transporting the topsoil.
The company ultimately called in the administrators in late-May, leaving the Minehead homes unfinished – with the West Somerset Free Press reporting in early-December that it was more than £36m in debt at the time.
Simon Fox, Somerset Council’s principal planning officer for major projects, provided a update on the paper mill site shortly before Christmas, following an inquiry by the leadership team at Watchet Baptist Church.
In a statement uploaded on the council’s official planning portal, he said: “There has been no activity with the application for many many months.
“The intended purchaser went bust and the land has reverted back to the original owner, Tameer.
“There is nothing happening at present while the site owner considers their next move.”
At the group’s annual general meeting in late-November, Base for Life chair Liz McGrath said that there needed to be a renewed focus on delivering social housing in Watchet, with the market housing that was coming on stream not meeting the needs of local people.
She said: “Social housing with accessibility provision, or social housing for large families, is insufficient in our area.
“The county-wide allocation of social housing doesn’t help to maintain a community if you want to stay near your family.
“Community-led housing groups arise when communities realise that they need and want to be more in control of what happens in their area.
“Where there’s a specific need or problem, local people are better able to find a solution than central government or private capital interests.”
Watchet and the former West Somerset area is one of the few parts of Somerset not to be adversely affected by the ongoing phosphates crisis, with around 12,000 homes being held up as developers scramble to secure additional mitigation to prevent damage to the Somerset Levels and Moors.
Because none of west Somerset’s rivers flow into the Levels and Moors (e.g. via the River Tone), house-builders do not need to provide any additional mitigation and can therefore construct homes in these rural communities much more rapidly.
Ms McGrath added: “The income gap between the rich and the poor has grown massively; house prices and rents have hugely increased in relation to local wages.
“Many families are currently destined to live in high-price, low-security, variable quality and expensive rental properties. Leaving the housing crisis to private investment isn’t working.
“We have a huge brownfield site in the middle on the town which has been empty for ten years. Although some of it is hugely polluted and will cost a huge fortune to clear, not all of it is – some of it you could start building on tomorrow.”
Recent surveys by Base for Life revealed that Watchet currently has 97 “empty or deteriorating” properties, which Ms McGrath described as “a crazy waste of resources”.
The surveys also revealed that 80 per cent of residents felt their current housing was “unsuitable in one way or another”.
Board member Sam Westmacott said: “We need to have development in this town which supports the town, where there’s a mix of dwellings.”
To find out more about Base for Life’s work, or to get involved, visit www.baseforlifewatchet.com.
While the paper mill site remains off-limits to the public, the site can be viewed in detail from several existing footpaths, including the Mineral Line which connects Watchet with the neighbouring village of Washford.
Somerset Council will begin consultation in the spring of 2026 on the new Somerset-wide Local Plan, inviting residents of Watchet to give their views on which sites should be prioritised for development over the next two decades.
The new Local Plan – which will formally come into effect in March 2029 – is designed to replace all existing planning policies which the council inherited from the previous local authorities, as well as reflecting higher housing targets from central government.