A FORMER abattoir is set to be converted into a business hub to help stop the flow of companies out of Taunton Deane’s smallest town.

Permission has already been granted to convert the ex Karro Foods pig factory site in Wiveliscombe into an enterprise centre accommodating 13 small firms and start-up businesses.

It would be a major boost to the town’s economy and create scores of jobs on the site near the former train station, closed in the 1960s under the Beeching cuts.

Somerset County Council, which bought the land at Sandys Moor for £950,000 after Karro closed its operations there in 2013, has applied for change of use permission to enable the installation of trade counters and ancillary sales.

The enterprise centre project has attracted £472,130 from the European Regional Development Fund and £500,000 from the Local Enterprise Partnership.

A recent county council report said: “Wiveliscombe is a local economic centre which acts as a rural hub in western Somerset.

“There is a shortfall of available commercial premises in the Wiveliscombe catchment, particularly smaller, quality units.

“Hubs at Wellington and Taunton with easy M5 access draw businesses away from the area.

“There is an acknowledged need to retain the local workforce and of the threats presented to the local economy as businesses are lost to the area and employment land to residential development.

“Market research into supply and demand of workspace in and around Wiveliscombe reaffirmed this position and has prompted Somerset County Council to intervene.”

The centre, which will cost an estimated £1.65 million to construct, will feature offices and light industrial space.

The report added: “The next stage for this project is procurement of a suitable contractor that can deliver the development within the funding timescales, within budget and within scope.”

It warns that the county council would be liable to penalties if it does not deliver the project as expected.

But officers are confident they will be able to comply with the requirements of the contract as the authority has previous experience of managing such funding agreements.