News Release  28th August 07

The ‘Save Wells' Campaign reached a new level of activity this week, following the highly successful public meeting in Wells Town Hall on Tuesday 21 st August. Despite being held during the holiday period, over five hundred people turned up for the meeting with queues across the Market Place, and many had to be turned away because there was no more room for them in the Town Hall.

The Campaign Steering Committee is not opposed to appropriate development in those areas of the City of Wells that need it. But we need imaginative, community enhancing proposals that cover a wider area than just the Tesco and Princes Road proposals. 

1. We are totally opposed to the closure of Princes Road.  Its closure would overburden the narrow streets ad the south end of the High Street, and should Strawberry Way be closed for any reason, it would make any diversion almost impossible.  Princes Roand will also be needed should the High Street ever be pedestrianised.
   
2. We believe the moving of the Bus Station away from the centre of Town will cause difficulty for older people who use the Bus service.
   
3. We deplore the lack of City dedicated car parking and its removal to the edge of the City, which is too far for older people to walk.
   
4. We are opposed to the removal of the Coach parking, as tourism is a major source of income for our local economy.
   
5. And we believe that the current proposals will have the effect, as they have in other parts of the country where Centros Miller developments have been approved, of killing off the High Street, rather than enhancing its vibrancy.

We are also totally opposed to the actions of Mendip District Council in entering into a legally binding agreement with one developer without any consultation with the residents, businesses or organisations in Wells, before producing any planning brief, and without any public consultation whatsoever.

The Save Wells Campaign is now concentrating on persuading Mendip District Councillors to vote to reject the scheme, and instead to undertake a wider and fairer consultation that will focus on community enhancing proposals for the whole city, and to produce a brief for that development.

To that end, the Save Wells Campaign is working with local Architects and other professionals from Wells and the surrounding villages to produce a better, more comprehensive and more appropriate brief for the development of the City.

ENDS