Minehead's £3.3m social care academy could be shut down
Training centre may close as focus shifts to Bridgwater
A £3.3m social care training centre in Minehead could soon be shut down.
Somerset Council has confirmed it is not expecting to continue its pilot use of the Seahorse Resource Centre on Stephenson Road.
The council said it is now investigating future uses for the site, but has not given a timetable for any closure.
How the Minehead site came about
The government provided £19.7m of levelling up funding in January 2023 to turn the former community hospital on Salmon Parade in Bridgwater into a health and social care academy.
The plans included a satellite site at the Seahorse Resource Centre in Minehead.
The Minehead site was delivered using £3.3m of the grant.
The centre was sold to Avon and Somerset Constabulary to allow the town's police station to relocate, and the relevant rooms were rented back.
Closure first hinted at in May
A report published ahead of a meeting of the council's adults, health and housing scrutiny committee on 8th October said a contractor for the Bridgwater site would finally be appointed by March 2027.
It said the aim is for the facility to be open by October 2028.
The report made no reference to the Minehead site, or how much training had already been offered there.
The possible closure of the Minehead site was first hinted at when the council's executive committee met in early May to vote on moving the project forward.
The project is being run in partnership with NHS Somerset, which commissions the county's health services, and the Somerset NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the county's two acute hospitals along with a range of other facilities.
Lara Bell, the council's head of regeneration, said at the time:
"We are considering at the moment whether or not this training continues at Minehead, and it might be that this has to close down because there is no ongoing need or demand that we have identified for that facility at this point in time."
She also said: "We found out during the delivery of training packages at the Seahorse Centre that participants were actually having difficulty getting there."
Ms Bell added: "In terms of it being a facility that could wash its face for continuing in the long-term, it was not going to be viable to continue with that activity in that location, unfortunately."
Minehead has no direct bus service to and from Bridgwater. Its main bus service is the 28 to Taunton via Dunster, Watchet and Williton.
The town also has no mainline railway service, and the West Somerset Railway heritage line only operates at certain times of the year.
Criticism from Conservative councillor
Councillor Frances Nicholson, the shadow portfolio holder for children, education and families, argued the approach amounted to "giving up on west Somerset".
Ms Nicholson is one of two Conservative councillors for the Dulverton and Exmoor division.
She said: "Regeneration in the Minehead and west Somerset area is hugely important, and it is also an area where there is a great need for carers, given the elderly nature of the population."
Ms Nicholson also said: "There are lots of reasons why, in an area where distances are huge and incomes are very low, it is difficult to ensure that something is properly and well used for the benefit of all the people in the area - both the people who are getting the training and also the people who need the trained people."
She added: "If it's difficult for people to get to Minehead from west Somerset, it's going to be a great deal more difficult to get to Bridgwater, and a great deal more costly."
Delays at the Bridgwater site
Work on the Bridgwater site has been greatly delayed because of extensive remedial work and rising building costs.
An extra £2.5m of funding was allocated in August after planned regeneration work in the Tonedale area of Wellington was scaled back.
The council's planning committee north voted in September to approve plans for bat mitigation within the former gatehouse at the main entrance to the site.
Officers anticipate that consent on the wider application can be secured by late November.
What the council says
The council confirmed it was considering its options for the Minehead site, but did not provide a possible timetable for a closure.
A spokesperson said: "At this time, the Somerset health and care academy team is not expecting to continue its pilot use of the Seahorse Centre in Minehead, and we are investigating future uses of the site."
The spokesperson also said: "However, the academy will continue to support people across Somerset as training continues to be offered to meet local demand."
They went on to say: "Training is already available and, in 2025, 37 training sessions were delivered in Minehead."
The spokesperson added: "The programme is continuing to grow, and our focus continues to be the development of a physical training and innovation hub at the former Bridgwater Hospital, which is planned to open in 2028."