Thelma Short, 83, a member for two decades, expressed her distress: “We won’t be able to get to it, old people like me carrying a cake down. It’s heart-breaking.”
Another neighbour cautioned that if members could no longer reach the hall safely, the institute risked “being forced to fold.”
Town clerk Emma Gunhouse issued a forceful objection, stating that the alterations “ride roughshod over the Wells neighbourhood plan and the human rights of the members of the Wells Women’s Institute.”
Mr Leahy has dismissed the WI’s concerns as “unfounded,” noting that he widened the driveway from two metres to three and offered the group one or two parking spaces on meeting days. The plunge pool, he said, sits more than a metre from the WI building.
