With house prices in Highbridge and Burnham set to boom due to the Hinkley factor attention has turned to the shops and businesses in the towns.

Asda is busy building a new fuel station on their Highbridge site which is set to create a price war in the area . The supermarket currently sells diesel at around £1.08 a litre which is matched by many local fuel stations already. However Burnham is set to lose one of its supermarkets after Morrisons announced it has earmarked the store for closure this autumn.

Speaking to the Weekly News Somerset County Council's David Hall said he didn't expect the Morrisons site to be empty for long. He said: "It is a key site on the seafront, and was previously a Somerfield supermarket before it was Morrisons, so it has been a supermarket for over 20 years.

"It's not the only supermarket in the town but it is a very convenient one particularly for people who aren't very mobile and is very much essential for town centre. My colleagues in Sedgemoor and on Burnham and Highbridge Town Council are working very hard and very closely with Morrisons and are looking at other opportunities so we shall be supporting them in any way that we can."

Reacting to the view of some residents that Highbridge feel that Asda has killed the small shops in the High Street Mr Hall said the supermarket was very popular.

He said: "I'm not a retail specialist but large supermarkets have their role to play. It's very popular otherwise people wouldn't be using it and it wouldn't be profitable. There is a place for large supermarkets, whether that place is right on the High Street depends on each area."

He said Bridgwater had been fortunate in that the supermarkets were in and around the town and not right on the edge or in the High Street.

The Burnham-on-Sea Town Centre manager Beverley Milner Simonds said the seaside resort was doing very well and could further boom if local businesses make the most of the increase in trade from the Hinkley investment.

There is a retail vacancy level of 3.8 percent in Burnham she said which is ten percent below the national average.

A new hairdresser called Broad Street has opened in the High Street while M&F Carpets and Flooring has opened in Abingdon Street she said.