THE owner of a derelict church has been given the go ahead to demolish the Highbridge landmark.

Terence Rickard, owner of the old Highbridge Gospel Tabernacle Church on Newtown Road submitted an application for a demolition order to Sedgemoor District Council on December 23 2016 to get the green light to demolish the church.

However, in a shocking turn of events, Sedgemoor District Council planning officer, Stuart Houlet said the demolition can go ahead as long as the owner files a General Permitted Development Order, which grants the demolition of buildings outside conservation areas.

Mr Houlet said: "In terms of consultation there is no requirement for consultation with the Town Council under the Regulations but we as we do on other Prior Approval applications, we have taken the view that we will consult out of courtesy and to allow for the local knowledge as you rightly emphasise to be fed into the process.

"Therefore there is no recourse to the Planning Committee.

"However in this case the re-use of the building and its retention on that basis are not matters that can be considered under the Notification process.

"The Notification process is a relatively new thing, before all demolition of unlisted buildings outside of conservation areas were just permitted without recourse to the Planning Authority.

"It has been brought in simply to deal with the effects of demolition rather than agreeing whether the demolition should take place or not.

"Unfortunately the process tends to just increase expectation that the LPA will be able to prevent demolition despite not giving us any powers to do so.

"I am aware of the email from the local resident requesting a building preservation notice and we will respond more fully in due course when back in the office – but as advised it is our officers professional opinion that the building would not be worthy of listing in terms of any national importance and we can only serve a building preservation notice where we intend to support any potential listing.

"I can appreciate the frustrations but that is the position I am afraid."

The news comes just weeks after Burnham and Highbridge Town councillors rejected the demolition proposals at a Planning Committee meeting amid concerns about the lack of future plans for the site.

John Parkes, Councillor for Highbridge from Burnham and Highbridge Town Council said he is disappointed by the ruling "I think as I said at the meeting that the actions meaning there will be virtually no public consultation on the project are tokenistic.

"Residents do have concerns about the demolition and the future footprint of the Highbridge land.

"They have concerns over how the demolition will be carried out and the temporary fencing going up.

"Residents will be unhappy when the site is demolished because it is part of Highbridge's rich heritage that is about to be lost.

"They are especially unhappy about the lack of consultation on this, as am I."

"The fact remains Highbridge residents and some councillors are fed up of seeing buildings that are boarded up.

"There is already one on Market Street and the Highbridge hotel is another example of buildings which are just not being sorted.

"I hope we don't get further issues like this in Highbridge."