Wessex Water issued an apology to Brean residents during a public meeting in the village on Thursday night (April 14th).
It comes after villagers claimed they were not consulted regarding the huge £26m project to build an extension to the firm’s nearby sewage treatment centre.
Burnham-On-Sea.com first reported here how residents say the work at the centre, which is on the outskirts of Brean, will cause months of traffic disruption, generate noise through a summer of concrete piling work, and also hit the visual appearance of the area.
Brean’s Residents Association organised Thursday’s public meeting in Brean Village Hall to give residents a chance to express their views directly to Wessex Water.
During the meeting, the firm’s Project Manager, Dave Jones, explained that the sewage treatment plant’s expansion is necessary to improve bathing water quality in Weston and enable the resort to meet new EU bathing water standards.
He said piling would begin in May and continue until mid-July and would have to be complete prior to the bird wintering season in the autumn, however the construction of the centre’s extension will not be complete until the end of 2012.
Mr Jones apologised for not including Brean residents in Wessex Water’s consultation regarding the work. “We missed several consultation meetings in December and can only apologise to residents that more discussions have not taken place.”
Brean resident and parish councillor Joan Jackman told the meeting: “What really hurts residents us in Brean is that we are on the rough end of this work – we get the smells and the noise, yet we were not consulted on the proposals. We weren’t asked for our views even though we will be affected the most. We do understand the need for the extension, though.”
Parish Council Chairman Derek Petrie added: “North Somerset Council did not consult us and even said the scheme would have no visual impact.”
Another resident, Chris Rabone, said: “We have a number of concerns about the project, particularly regarding the noise and smells and the amount of extra construction traffic that will be generated.”
Afterwards, Don Holland from the Brean and Berrow Residents’ Association, told Burnham-On-Sea.com: “It was a very informative evening and we are grateful for Wessex Water attending and giving us an apology regarding the consultation, but there are still a number of questions outstanding that need to be answered.”
Wessex Water says it will come back to the residents association with more details over the coming days.
Pictured are some of the residents who attended Thursday’s meeting in Brean
