FURIOUS florist Sharon Davis has hit out at the state of Cornhill in Wellington – once described as the town’s ‘Jewel in the Crown’.

Part of Cornhill looks like a bombsite while pigeons have blighted the street for years with their mess.

“The whole thing is a disgrace and compulsory purchase orders should be put in place,” said Sharon yesterday.

“This street is one of the oldest in Wellington – part of the town’s history – but for some reason Taunton Deane Borough Council don’t seem to care.

“I have been in Cornhill trading as Interiors & Flowers for four years and in that time the lane has been cleaned only twice.

“I go out once a week with buckets of bleach and sweep the pigeon mess away. This costs me money and time but I do it because I care for the safety of people. It becomes a serious hazard and smells if it isn’t done.

“I have been given promise after promise but nothing happens. I had been hoping that the opening of The Iron Duke might signal an improvement but no further progress has been made.”

Sharon is particularly incensed that Bath Place – Taunton’s ‘Jewel in the Crown’ – is being improved by work which will take four weeks. 

Local councillor and town deputy mayor Gary James disputes that Wellington Town Council has done nothing about the problems at Cornhill. “I can assure her Wellington Town Council has constantly been on to the owners of the buildings which harbour these pigeons to do something about it but they have not.

“The town council has a commitment from the Deane to hose down the area on a constant basis and try in some part to keep it clean and presentable.

“I have personally emailed the owners and had no response. Some time ago the owners were advised about the pigeon problem and they secured some areas but this was just a sticking plaster on an arterial bleed.”

Council colleague Janet Reed added: “Wellington Town Council has repeatedly tried to get this situation rectified. Where do we go from here when we have an irresponsible owner who will not help?

“I have chased this matter with relevant officers at TDBC. There is hope on the horizon. A planning application is in the pipeline and access to the offending pigeons’ home should be allowed shortly.

“Environmental Health declare pigeons are not ‘vermin’ but Natural England say they are. If this is correct can we proceed to exterminate the pigeons? I say this at risk of being castigated by people who love pigeons. I don’t dislike them but human care does rank higher in my estimation."

The street has been particularly dangerous recently because of the heavy rain and there is a constant danger of someone falling over.

Meanwhile, an email from Isabel Ward sent to Cllr John Williams criticising Taunton Deane Council’s lack of action over Cornhill has triggered the following response from the council leader:

“Thank you for your email dated 30 January.  I appreciate that the rundown condition of Cornhill does cause great concern to us all.  We have, therefore, set up an internal officer working group to target efforts on Cornhill which is pursuing the following:

On the land-locked potential development site with fire-damaged listed buildings – we are in touch with the owners (Haunch Lane Developments) and they have informed us that they have recently resolved the issue of the unregistered land which had been causing issues for a number of months.  They are currently updating their development proposal and intend to arrange a pre-application meeting with officers from the planning department in due course ahead of submitting a planning application. We will be pursuing this.

Cornhill passageway – 3 Fore Street is vacant on the upper floors and has been infested by pigeons (the building is listed Grade II).  We have traced the owners who are an offshore investment company.  I have spoken to the manager of the charity shop who has keys for the upper floors.  However they have informed me that the upper floors are so badly infested that the staircase is rotten and any person who wishes to access will need to have full protective clothing and mask. We are therefore proposing to get Tony Garrett, conservation officer, access to the building in order for him to assess the condition of the internal fabric. If as anticipated it is in a poor condition, we will have powers to serve an Urgent Works Notice under the Listed Building Act 1990. As an alternative approach we are looking at whether a Community Protection Notice could be served and Legal are currently considering this matter. We also are in contact with the agent for the owners and have today given them names of local companies who specialise in pest control; we are also discussing whether the owners would be interested in selling the upper floors to either a housing association or developer. 

“On the issue of heritage at risk, our officers have tried for numerous weeks to persuade the Heritage Lottery Fund to consider the possibility of supporting a Townscape Heritage initiative grant scheme. Unfortunately they declined since they considered that Wellington was not sufficiently deprived. On a positive note, we have recently persuaded Historic England (formerly English Heritage) to support the principle of funding 75% of a Project Officer post for Heritage at Risk in Wellington. This is intended to provide a dedicated officer resource for managing the regeneration of Wellington through heritage led projects, such as Cornhill, Tonedale and the Wellington Monument. I will ensure you are kept informed when this officer is in post.

“I hope you find this both helpful and reassuring and I will request an update on progress in say three months or if anything of particular interest happens in the interim.”