Standing room only at Public Meeting

On 24^th January 2025, the Grand Western Greenway campaign held its first public meeting in the Scout HQ in the centre of Wellington.

Invitations were sent to all our supporters, and these were supported by a social media and physical poster campaigns across Taunton, Wellington and the surrounding communities.

The purpose of the meeting was to present information about the various proposals, and to bring together a panel of experts, politicians and business owners.

The meeting was opened by the MP for Wellington and Taunton, Gideon Amos who, despite being unwell, made the opening remarks.

He welcomed the audience who by this time had occupied all the chairs leaving standing room only, and commented on their tenacity at turning out on the wettest, windiest day of the year so far. He spoke of his job as being to support the Greenway in any way he could and recounted his experience of speaking with town and county councillors in Taunton and Wellington to reinforce that message.

The chairman and founder of the Grand Western Greenway campaign, Charles Biscoe, gave a presentation about various route options and spoke of the need to maintain an open mind as much of these aspirations depend on the all-important negotiations with landowners along the way.

Chaired by Wellington Town Councillor Keith Wheatley, the panel of experts came together to firstly speak of their specialist areas of expertise, and included:

• John Grimshaw CBE, the founder and former Chief Executive of Sustrans over 40 years ago. He was responsible for building the heavily-used Bristol Bath Path and for, as part of the millennium projects, for designing and implementing the National Cycle Network with which we are all familiar to this day. John now runs Greenways and Cycleroutes Ltd that builds and advises on Greenways all over the country including the Strawberry Line in Somerset.

• Charles Biscoe, founder and chairman of the Grand Western Greenway CIC

• Tracey Mock, Manager of On Your Bile in Taunton and Bridgwater, a successful charity repurposing unwanted bicycles for sale as well as training new bicycle mechanics from diverse backgrounds. She spoke of the business and accisibility issues the Greenway opened up for theorganisation.

• Cllr Dave Mansell, Green Party member for Upper Tone that includes Wiveliscombe and the communities to the north of Wellington.

• Cllr Nick O’Donnel, Somerset and Taunton Town councillor representing Taunton Town Council.

They answered questions from the floor that ranged from how the path would be constructed, how it would be paid for, when would it be complete, can horses use it, the impact of the Wellington railway Station and many other queries about the route and its proximity to Musgrove Park Hospital and Taunton College.

John Grimshaw was able to speak about the challenges of creating a path with a sealed and non-sealed surface most of which were financial and dependent on the way in which landowners perceived one to be more or less attractive than the other.

Eventually, after over an hour and a half, the meeting was drawn to a close with participants mingling together and carrying on what will almost certainly prove to be a long and fruitful discussion washed down with copious amounts of tea and biscuits.

The Greenway (proposed) Route

In a perfect world, we could draw a line on a map and, after a bit of to-ing and fro-ing, build a beautiful path through the countryside to be enjoyed by all as they walk wheel and cycle between Wellington and Taunton.

Of course, this is a far from perfect world and without that line on the map there is no starting point and nothing to which we and hundreds of others can aspire.

In this post I want to talk about a route through the Tone Valley from Tonedale in Wellington to Taunton Station. In conjunction with Greenways and Cycleroutes Ltd and the renowned path builder John Grimshaw CBE, we have studied an outline route with some options.

Our goal has always to do more than build a linear route between Wellington and Taunton. We want to connect several communities along the way and have mapped out possible routes to bring Wiveliscombe, Langford Budville, Milverton, Nynehead, Hillfarrance, Oake, Bradford on Tone, Bishops Hull and Norton Fitzwarren on to the main route through a series of 'behind-the-hedge' paths and quiet lanes. By connecting the Greenway to these communities, it will small communities to each other and to Wellington and Taunton in turn.

Map showing connections from rural communities to the Greenway. The inset shows some of the route options to Musgrove Par Hospitaland Taunton College across Roughmoor.

I can imagine a few sharp intakes of breath at the scope of the project, but we have to remember that one third of all journeys are done by active means and that these paths could improve the lives of a population in excess of 100,000 (Taunton Local Community Network - 74,000. Wellington and Wiveliscombe Local Community Network - 27,000 (Somerset Council))

Many people want to create active travel routes. In Somerset there are campaigns everywhere, all with laudable goals to offer a traffic-free piece of infrastructure to serve the walker, wheeler, and cyclist. The Government is more committed to seeing this happen in England with the publication of a draft Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy. Although by no means perfect, it refers to the potential success of projects that are “coherent, connected, consistent and accessible to all” and should link to key destinations such as rail and bus stations, hospitals, and schools.

It is hard to imagine a project that better fits this description than the Grand Western Greenway. If you want to see an interactive map of the route pictured above, see our website (below)

www.grandwesterngreenway.co.uk

Route | GrandWesternGreenway

The Grand Western Greenway Assoc. campaigns to build a rural active travel route, a 'greenway', between Wellington and Taunton in Somerset, UK

Let us have a quick walk-though starting in Wellington. Bear in mind, this is entirely dependent on landowner permissions and planning permissions!

Tonedale (phase 1)

When Network build the Wellington Station starting in 2026, they will almost certainly build a 'haul-road' from Tonedale to the station site on the north side of the railway. They have agreed to leave that in place rather than remove it as they would normally. West of England Developments have planning application before Somerset Council to build a number of homes in this location, and their Active Travel Plan (every application has one) involves incorporating this haul-road into it. After the station, we would continue along the north side of the Nynehead boat lift to the Nynehead Road to connect with the existing public right of way to the East Nynehead Road.

We would then hope to follow the route of the defunct Grand Western canal to Tone Green and continue along the north side of the railway to the Oake / Bradford on Tone Road. This is the only practical rail crossing which, while not perfect, could accommodate safe passage from the north to the south.

We follow the railway along the south side to Allerford and on into Silk Mills. Wessex Water have given us permission to incorporate the access to their pumping station at Silk Mills to get us under the bridge. From there we would pick up the existing bridleway across Frieze Hill to Staplegrove Road.

The route to the station already exists along Trenchard Way, although it would be desirable to incorporate the paths (upgraded) over Roughmoor to the hospital and College.

From the station to the centre of town, a new route is already under construction as part of the Garden town investment and will see a much-improved bridge being installed (hopefully in 2026) at the Morrisons / Brewhouse juncture.

Interesting? Raises more questions than it answers? Then why not join us at a Public Meeting in Wellington on 24th January 2 - 4pm. It will be in the 1st Wellington Scout HQ, 6 Fore Street (behind the Co-Op)

www.grandwesterngreenway.co.uk

Grand Western Greenway Public Meeting | GrandWesternGreenway

Join us to discuss the future of sustainable travel between Wellington and Taunton

Greenway Update

Railway Station

We can't even begin to express our joy at the announcement that Wellington will have its railway station reinstated!

For us it means the developments around it will almost certainly go ahead on both sides of the line, and this means the haul road the Network Rail will build will become incorporated into the active travel plan from the station to Tonedale.

By coincidence, this also happens to be the first 500m of the Greenway, and will provide links to the Toneworks development as well as the natural joining spot for a proposed path from Langford Budv ille to Wellington.

Are you a landowner?

If so, if your land is along the river valley from Wellington to Taunton, we would love to hear from you. We don't really know the route of the proposed Greenway, but we have many thoughts and ideas which will doubtless mature as we discuss these with you. Four significant landowners have already indicated their wish to accommodate this project, but we need to talk to everyone, and to get those talks going very soon.

Walk the Greenway

The next (and probably last for 2025) walk along the Greenway is planned for 16th August. Details below.

Walk the Greenway (XVIII) | GrandWesternGreenway

Walk from station to station, town centre to town centre (Wellington to Taunton)

Linking Communities

The Greenway has never been solely about getting from Wellington to Taunton. Our plan has always included linking many smaller communities in the area either along separate paths or by making use of Quiet Lanes. Have a look at the recently added interactive map on our website to see some of the suggestions being discussed in local government and beyond.

Route | GrandWesternGreenway

The Grand Western Greenway Assoc. campaigns to build a rural active travel route, a 'greenway', between Wellington and Taunton in Somerset, UK

Membership | GrandWesternGreenway

The Grand Western Greenway is a community-led project to build an accessible active travel route for walkers, cyclists and wheelers between Wellington and Taunton in Somerset. It is a Community Interest Company, and membership endows a 'share' with members being able to vote at the AGM amd take an active role in way the organisation functions.