TOWN councillors are stepping in to work on how to protect and enhance the future of two historic former mill sites in Wellington following the failure of a community interest company (CIC) which tried to do the same thing.

All five directors of Wellington Mills CIC have announced they will step down five years after it was formed with a mission statement to ‘encourage and promote the effective regeneration of the wonderful buildings at Tonedale, ToneWorks, and the surrounding green spaces’.

Both sites are recognised as being of national heritage importance.

The former Fox’s woollen mill in Tonedale is privately owned, meaning community groups had no influence over what the owners wanted to do with it.

The factory’s old dye works, known as Toneworks, in Milverton Road, was bought by the now-defunct Somerset West and Taunton Council (SWT) which ploughed hundreds of thousands of pounds of public money into protecting it.

But SWT ran out of money to restore the site and has twice failed with Government Levelling Up funding bids.

Town clerk Dave Farrow told councillors this week: “These are the most significant and historic buildings in the town.

“The Tonedale site is an ongoing problem and there is no real sense of what the ‘end game’ or ideal solution is.

“While we have been receiving update reports, the town council is not being proactive in seeking to find a solution for the most important heritage site in the town.

“There is a risk that there is a vacuum of representation from a local group to continue to work with Somerset Council to find a way forward, particularly in relation to the Tonedale Mill site.”

The council’s environment and heritage committee agreed to recommend the full council next month to set up a working group to help develop ‘an informed position’ for the authority and report back next January.

Mr Farrow said: “It would not be the intention that the working group would replicate the work of the CiC, rather it would seek to support the identification of a way forward for the site working with the heritage at risk team of Somerset Council, which in time may include identifying a suitable organisational vehicle for any future development work.

“The initial work of the group would be to gather information about the current position and the options for how the site could be used and how best the heritage of the site can be protected.”

But Cllr John Thorne said the council was five years behind the times because he had warned in 2018 that the CIC had no ownership of the sites, no influence, no money, and no powers to get anything done.

Cllr Thorne said: “I said at the time that the only way anything could be done was through local auhorities which do have the funds and powers.

“The CIC just raised expectations among the public that their glossy schemes could be achieved, but have had no power to do anything, and yet we have given them thousands of pounds of public money to spend.

“I did say at the time it was no more than a con on the public.”

Wellington Mayor Cllr Marcus Barr said: “We have to set up this working group. These are such important sites for the town and we need to find a way forward to protect them.”

Committee chairman Cllr Mike McGuffie said even if the CIC had not achieved anything practical it had at least been a voice speaking up for the area and putting forward views.

Cllr McGuffie said it was important the town council now filled the gap and worked closely with the unitary authority.

The Grade II listed Tonedale Mill was the largest textile manufacturing site in the South West and famous for producing twill fabrics such as serge and later khaki cloth and puttees used by the British Army in the First World War.

A significant proportion of the early 19th Century mill remained, but many of the privately-owned buildings have fallen into disrepair and are now registered as ‘Heritage at Risk’ by Historic England since it became vacant in the 1990s.

Planning permission was granted in 2006 to redevelop the site for a residential-led, mixed used scheme including nearly 150 homes and commercial units, which was increased to 223 homes when another application was given the green light in 2008.

Since then, however, nothing has happened amid growing fears about the future of the Tonedale Mill site, until owners Mancraft submitted an application earlier this year for legal confirmation that the 2008 permission was still active.