ANOTHER six months’ grace is being requested for roadworks to be completed for a development at the Blackdown Garden Centre which was ordered to be carried out 12 years ago.

Planning permission was given in 2012 for a two-storey retail unit to be built at the garden centre on the Piccadilly Straight section of the A38 near Wellington provided a right-turn lane was created in the carriageway to improve road safety.

But although the retail development went ahead, the road improvements were never constructed and a series of deadlines was set by planners but none met.

The garden centre was then sold in 2022 to the Blue Diamond group, which was eventually told the right-turn lane had to be in place by the end of this year.

Now, Blue Diamond has said that deadline also cannot be met.

Instead, it is proposing a further six-month time limit extension to June 30, 2025, with work planned to start on January 6.

Blue Diamond consultant Stephen Cooper said work was expected to be finished by April, but a two-month contingency was being allowed for.

Somerset Council senior development infrastructure engineer Chris Wadham backed the new extension, which he said should allow the final phase of roadworks to take place during the school Easter holidays when there would be less traffic to be impacted.

West Buckland parish councillors fed-up with the delays previously called for work to be carried out as soon as possible, pointing to ‘more than adequate time’ since the company bought the business.