On 24th 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.
