PLANS to develop Watchet's East Quay have been created following a community consultation by The Onion Collective CIC. 

Changes include removing the idea of a lookout tower from the development, incorporating a new High quality public realm scheme landscape architecture scheme, and removing the ‘take away’ hatch from the ground floor restaurant.

The development aims to bring jobs, nurture creative enterprise and attract visitors to Watchet. 

Consultations late last year were purposefully planned for the early stages of the design process, so that the community could have a meaningful input into the progress of the designs.

Onion Collective ran 18 separate sessions, including 10 presentation workshops and 8 drop in sessions.  

Georgie Grant, one of the directors of Onion Collective, said:“The responses to the designs by architects Invisible Studio was overwhelmingly positive, it was tremendously encouraging to listen to people’s positive reactions to the design proposals and exciting to see how much the community is behind the scheme, we worked hard to reach as many local people as possible and would like to say an enormous thank you to everyone who took part, your thoughts ideas and advice have been invaluable. 

"However there were areas where people had some serious concerns particularly towards the design of the lookout tower, the seeming lack of landscape design proposals at this stage and the fear that the new restaurant might take trade from already established cafes. 

"These same concerns came up again and again and it therefore became a priority for us to respond accordingly.”

In response to those concerns Onion Collective has decided to remove the look-out tower from this development. 

In response to people’s questions about the design of the outside public space, Onion Collective has also since instructed Landscape Architects LT Studio. 

Landscape proposals will be presented at a public meeting in March, date to be confirmed.

The decision to remove the take away hatch from the ground floor of the restaurant has also been agreed so as not to compete with other already established cafés in town as this was another major concern from the consultations.

The results of the consultations have been fed back to architects Invisible Studio and to new Landscape Architects LT Studio and will be incorporated into the finalisations of the design process. 

The final designs will be presented at an open public meeting in March – date to be confirmed.

Planning permission for the development will be applied for in April this year, and once planning consent has been given Onion Collective can then apply for major capital grant funding to build the scheme. 

Funding to get concept designs to the planning stages was awarded by the Coastal Revival Fund.

The feedback from the consultations can be found on the Onion Collective website at http://www.onioncollective.co.uk/east-quay-work-foundry

For any further information please contact Onion Collective at info@onioncollective.co.uk or look on their website here at www.onioncollective.co.uk