IT took just ten minutes for Wellington Town Council to give the go-ahead to sign a lease which will see them gain 60-acres of land – known as the Green Corridor - for public use.

An extraordinary meeting of the council was held on December 19 where members took little time to vote unanimously in favour of signing a 150-year lease with the Somerset West and Taunton District Council.

The nuts and bolts of the lease had been thrashed out by the town council’s policy and resources committee the previous week and just needed the authorisation of the full council to proceed.

The district council bought the land – which covers an area stretching from Tonedale to Hilly Head and includes The Basins nature reserve – in July and is now set to sign it over to Wellington’s town council.

Cllr Andrew Govier, speaking at the town council on December 19, said: “This is a fantastic legacy for Somerset West and Taunton Council to do this.”

He said that at a time when the Somerset West and Taunton Council was beginning to peter out with the new Somerset Council unitary authority coming into effect in April, it was something the authority could be “immensely proud of.”

“This is the biggest step forward in many years for Wellington,” he added. “The sooner it happens and the sooner the land is under the control of local people the better.”

The town council has already established a Green Corridor Advisory Board which will help to develop a strategy and management plan for the land and will included representatives of the council, Transition Town Wellington, Wellington Community Food, Wellington Mills CIC, Wellington Sports Federation, The Basins Volunteer Group, Somerset West and Taunton Council initially and then the Somerset Council unitary authority, Environment Agency and the Somerset Wildlife Trust.

A vision and management plan for the project was agreed by the town council in April 2022 and covers a number of key ingredients.

These include making the land available for public use and to be used to promote recreation, healthy lifestyles, local food growing and the development of arts and cultural spaces; working with the Wellington Community Food Group to establish a community farm on the land; extending the existing Basins Allotments site to create more space to encourage greater self-sufficiency in food production; and looking at developing extra playing pitch capacity with the Wellington Sports Federation.

It was said during the town council meeting on December 19 that the vision and management plan would keep changing as and when new ideas came up.

The town council has set a budget of £20,000 for 2023-24 to cover the costs of implementing the management plan.

The special extraordinary meeting on December 19 saw councillors agree that the proposed lease with Somerset West and Taunton Council for the Green Corridor land be approved and that the Mayor, Cllr Mark Lithgow, and Deputy Mayor, Cllr Nancy Powell-Brace, authorised to sign the 26-page leasing document on the council’s behalf.

They also voted in favour of putting a five-year management plan in place to take the project forward.