Crewkerne residents have protested over the lack of progress in delivering a new car park in their town centre.

South Somerset District Council has been trying for nearly a decade to create a new car park on the former Millers Garage site, located south of the A30 at East Street.

Having purchased the site in late 2014 for £225,000, the council spent years trying to bring forward proposals for the car park, which would link up to the existing car parking near the Henhayes Centre.

The council’s district executive committee voted in June to delay allocating further funding to the project until a planning application to deliver the car park through new housing had come forward.

Crewkerne residents have now voiced their displeasure at this, saying they are “increasingly mystified” by the council’s inertia.

More than a dozen protesters, including several members of the town council, gathered at the Millers Garage site on July 20, holding a banner saying: ‘Where is our promised car park?’.

Resident Pat Lunt, speaking on behalf of the protesters, light-heartedly dubbed the car park situation “a nightmare on East Street”.

He said: “We are increasingly mystified and frustrated by the lack of progress on the provision of the car park off East Street, which is intended to link to the existing car park in Henhayes.

“The proposed car park was granted permission in 2019 as it ‘would make a significant contribution to meeting the identified long stay car parking needs in Crewkerne’.

“Although the roofs from the garages have been removed and several trees felled in preparation for creating a link between the existing and proposed car parks, no further work has been carried out.”

The council’s district executive intends to work with an unnamed “development partner”, with the car park being delivered alongside a new housing development – even though the site is not allocated within the council’s Local Plan.

Resident Ali Hart said they were dismayed by the lack of communication from the council since the June meeting.

They said: “As I live directly opposite the entrance to the site, I feel a full consultation on the impact to residents should have been carried out as soon as there was an indication that there may be a change of plan to the proposed car park.”

Mr Lunt added: “The planning permission for the car park is in place, the money has been allocated. What is the problem?

“In the meantime, the parking problems faced by residents of East Street and Mount Pleasant continue, with many residents having vehicles damaged by passing traffic as they have no alternative but to park on this busy A-road.

“The wider benefits of more long-stay parking for workers and businesses in the town are also being denied.”

“There is a growing sense of urgency for, as with most planning approvals, there is a time limit of three years from the granting of permission to the permitted development being begun.

“That limit is reached on August 19 this year and there is concern among residents that despite roofs being removed from the garages, trees being felled and the landscape altered, there will be an attempt to argue that the permission has lapsed because work has not commenced."