Sedgemoor District Council has this week approved spending £2.4m to clear up a former waste landfill site in Burnham-On-Sea and turn into a public space and new homes.
Once specialist cleaning work at Rosewood Green, off Worston Lane, is completed this will allow the currently disused site to be used for providing ‘community green space’ and up to 117 new homes.
This week’s decision folllows work by the council dating back as far as 36 years, when Sedgemoor first became the regulator and land owner.
The project has previously been delayed by the re-settling of badgers and other environmental issues surrounding the site’s former use for waste landfill.
At a meeting in 2007 the council’s Executive agreed to fund a capital budget of £1.6m to take forward the necessary cleaning work at the site. And on Wednesday (December 9th) the council committed a further £920,885 to ensure the long awaited project, costing in excess of £2.4million, is completed.
Tenders to restore the site for public open space were received in October 2009 and the work, subject to planning consent, will be carried out on site during spring/summer next year.
Costs for the project will be partially offset by contributions from developers wishing to build homes on the Rosewood Farm area of the site.
Up to 117 homes could be built, including the 48 Bloor Homes already approved, subject to a legal agreement.
Councillor Paul Herbert, Portfolio holder for Housing and Project delivery, (pictured) told Burnham-On-Sea.com: “By making this decision the executive of Sedgemoor District Council have re-affirmed their position to continue to provide the inward investment greatly needed within the Burnham-On-Sea and Highbridge area.”
“This huge amount of money will create the opportunity to deliver new housing to meet the demands from local people whilst at the same time creating new open space for the families who live within the vicinity.”
And Kerry Rickards, Chief Executive, told Burnham-On-Sea.com: “The Rosewood Green issue has been our agenda for a long long time and the decision from Council on the 9th of December finally gives the go-ahead to an investment of over £2million pounds in the Burnham-On-Sea and Highbridge area and brings to an end this blight of contaminated land to the benefit of the residents of the towns.”
