Welcome to the July update for the Grand Western Greenway, and thank you for your continuing support.
As ever, we move slowly toward making a start on the Greenway, and have put huge amounts of effort into get going at the Wellington end of the project. Logically, we have capitalised on the station reinstatement and the housing developments that have arisen around it. We are at a bit of an impasse at the moment as we are waiting for a couple of key decisions to happen, and they will probably not appear much before the end of the year. The first planning permission for the Wardleworth way development which is making slow progress with Somerset Council. The second is, of course, consent for the station.
The latter is a bit of a formality because Network Rail is able to develop their estate without permission, but they generally go through the planning process for the sake of probity and good sense. Once that is done, construction will begin, and a new haul-road giving access to the north side of the station will be constructed. The housing development has incorporated any such road into their active travel plan, and that will form the first kilometre of our route. But we wait patiently….
So, to keep the momentum going, we are switching our attention to Taunton. The first part of that end of the route is hopefully going over Frieze Hill and under the Silk Mills road bridge towards Norton Fitzwarren. This is already a bridleway, and we are in discussions with Taunton Town Council about how we should proceed.
But, and here’s the problem, nothing happens until we have undertaken a formal feasibility study. These are usually done by specialised contractors who not only assess the practical building and cost issues, but liaise with landowners and other stakeholders. Nothing happens without that and any number of pieces of work, and funding for these is always difficult. I’ll explain why.
The government is very keen to promote sustainable transport as we move to a cleaner and less environmentally challenging future. they have committed £4.3bn pounds over the next three years which will go to councils to build infrastructure. However, (and every councillor will tell you this) the Council is under pressure to provide such improvements to the largest number of people for the smallest amount of money. Naturally, this means they will do so in areas of population concentration, and that means urban areas. Therefore, they will build paths in Yeovil, Bridgwater, Frome and possibly Taunton, but will not assist with them in what they consider to be rural areas.
Now here is the Catch 22. The Grand Western Greenway is an urban inter-connective corridor We know from our recent Travel and Use survey that users will abandon their cars on many occasions to go to work, to go shopping, for leisure or to access other services, and the potential user-base extends right across the Wellington, Wiveliscombe and Taunton areas – close to 100,000 people!
But, of course, it goes through the countryside so is, in the Council’s view, a rural route. We have explained that the M5 also goes through the countryside, and does almost every other urban connective route. To be fair to the council, they recognise the conundrum but, without their support, getting our feasibility and other studies done to attract government money, not much will happen.
This situation is true right across the county. We belong to an informal network of campaigner working hard to create the type of infrastructure you see in neighbouring counties. Devon is an exemplar with hundreds of miles of traffic free routes, as is Dorset and the Bristol area. All of us have the same experience, although the Strawberry Line continues to receive enormous sums of money each year (!)
So, what do we do? Well, councils are elected by us, and we have an election next year. We have many councillors and supporters who recognise the nonsense of applying rules for Manchester, Liverpool and London to Somerset where 49% of the population live in a rural setting. Our voices are persistent and probably annoying and, as our numbers grow, our voices grow louder, and we thank you for all the efforts you put into helping to sway the argument
Oh, and one other thing
We regularly walk from Taunton to Wellington through the Tone river valley. it gives people the chance to get a feel for how and where the Grand Western Greenway may be. In June we had 25 people join us, but our next walk on 25th July has many vacant spaces. If you would like to come, and the weather isn’t planning to damage us, why not come along. It leaves from Wellington at 09:30, is about eight and a half miles of flat waking which gets us into French Weir at around 14:00. The return trip is on the number 22 bus from just opposite Tesco. You can sign up here: Walk the Greenway
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