In the correspondence People For Packsaddle received about removing access to the permissive path and fencing off the public right of way at Packsaddle Community Fields, John Kulasek (Interim Head of Property at Somerset Council) states:

“… either this Council fulfils its obligations within the contract with the developer and fully supports and aids the developer in its pursuit of planning permission, or it will face challenge for breach of contract.”.

Yet, factually, the contractual obligation in the Option Agreement is:

“4.10. The Owner must cooperate with the Developer and use reasonable endeavours to assist the Developer in obtaining a Planning Permission and in the Developer pursuing any Appeal.”

Has Somerset Council got a fundamental misunderstanding of the Option Agreement they entered into with LiveWest, and their obligations within it?

Or have they intentionally exaggerated their obligations within the Option Agreement for political expediency to cover for actions they intend to carry out at Packsaddle Community Fields.

What do you think?

It’s the view of People For Packsaddle that the natural and obvious wording to use would have been to quote the exact wording from the Option Agreement.

It’s also worth noting here that our King’s Counsel opinion on Somerset Council’s obligations under the Option Agreement concluded that “there is a good argument that, properly construed, clause 4.10 does not oblige the Council to carry out the Proposed Works”.

We have today (9th March 2026) asked that Somerset Council withdraw this inaccurate and misleading communication and cancel the actions they propose to start taking on Tuesday.

We have not yet had a response to this request.