The wife of a Somerset businessman took her own life partly due to stress he had experienced on a regeneration project in Glastonbury, he has claimed.

Jonathan Wilkins runs the Wilkins Safety Group, a health and safety consultancy business based in the small village of Low Ham near Langport.

Since 2023, Mr Wilkins has been working with Somerset Council and the Red Brick Building Centre Ltd. to regenerate the Red Brick Building off the A39 Street Road as part of the £23.6m Glastonbury town deal.

The project has run into numerous problems over the last 12 months, with several reports of local contractors not being paid and the council putting the brakes on all work until an external audit had been completed.

In a tearful address to the full council in Bridgwater on Wednesday afternoon (March 26), Mr Wilkins confirmed he was one of those still awaiting payment for his work, and that his health had deteriorated as a result.

He then revealed that his wife of 35 years had taken her own life on Friday (March 21), believing that the council had "stolen his wife" and saying he had no money to pay for her funeral.

Mr Wilkins – who was accompanied by his daughter Ruth Orr – told the full council: "I was appointed in 2023 to be the principal designer at the Red Brick Building project, and we also carried out an asbestos survey.

"We were told this was being financed by a government grant, being administered by the council.

"Things were going great until April last year when we had no payment. Here we are, 12 months later and we haven't had a penny.

"We've had emails from the Red Brick Building apologising for the delays, blaming the council and assuring we would be paid."

Mr Wilkins said he was currently owed £23,746 for work he had carried out to date on the project, which had an original budget of just over £3m (of which £2.77m came from the town deal, with the remainder being sourced from match funding).

Mr Wilkins – who was a full-time carer for his wife until her death – said he had recently been diagnosed with fibromyalgia and was on antidepressants as a result of the stress caused by the project.

Fighting back tears, he revealed: "My wife became very upset seeing me struggle with this whole Red Brick fiasco. Last Friday, she took her own life.

"Thank you, Somerset Council and Red Brick – not only have you not paid me, you've stolen my wife. We were married for 35 years and you have robbed me of her.

"It will cost me between £8,000 and £10,000 to have a funeral – I haven't got that because you've still got it."

The council 'paused' the Red Brick Building project in June 2024 and requested an external audit be carried out by the South West Audit Partnership (SWAP) to allow the situation to be resolved.

Mr Wilkins claimed that this report was now finished and urged the council to take decisive action to prevent any further impact on local businesses.

He said: "SWAP confirmed they sent you their audit report weeks ago.

"You've got the information now – we need paying. One of the builders is virtually suicidal because he's owed nearly £300,000."

Jonathan Wilkins With His Daughter Ruth Orr At The Full Council Meeting In Bridgwater. CREDIT: Somerset Council.

Deputy leader Liz Leyshon (whose Street division borders Glastonbury) expressed her deepest sympathies to the Wilkins family and gave assurances that the issues surrounding the Red Brick Building would be sorted out as soon as humanly possible.

She said: "I'd like to offer you and your family my sincere condolences. I do realise from conversations with you and other contractors the impact that this has had on your businesses and personal lives, and we all thank you for coming here today to explain this to us."

Ms Leyshon said Mr Wilkins would receive a detailed written response from the council's finance team in the coming days, which would take the findings of the SWAP report into account.

She added: "This is a regrettable position. We are the accountable body, and the government is the funder for the town deals – we receive the money from government on receipt of claims from us. In order to draw that money down from government, we have to have all the information needed. It is not Somerset Council's money that is paying for this, it is government money."

The council has not confirmed how soon the SWAP report into the Red Brick Building would be made public or discussed by its audit committee, which meets once a month.