The Chief Executive and Chief Nurse of Somerset NHS Trust have pledged their support for the Greenway.
Somerset NHS Foundation trust employs more people in Somerset than anyone else. In this video, Hayley Peters and Peter Lewis discuss the benefits for the organisation,for their colleagues employed across multiple sites in Taunton and Wellington including Musgrove Park Hospital, and for their patients.
In this video they speak with Charles Biscoe, the lead director of the Greenway project, about these benefits. Charles later discusses the next few stages of the monumental task ahead of us.
Chief Nurse and Chief Executive of Somerset NHS Foundation Trust discuss the Greenway
Walk the Greenway
We had a walk planned for May, but this is now moved on into June. The next conducted walk from Wellingon to Taunton will be on 21st June, and is well worth coming along for. It gives a real look at the attractions of having an Active Travel Route through the countryside as opposed to one alongside the A38.
It doesn’t follow the exact route as we have to follow public rights of way, and because we are not entirely sure of exactly what the route will be. There are many negotiations and studies to be done before that time. Charles will lead the walk, and will talk a lot about the local history of the area including the growth and decline of the Grand Western Canal, from whom we borrowed part of our name.
This week we faced the very real possibility that Wellington Railway Station would get swept away as the Restoring Your Railways programme was cancelled in the Chancellor’s statement on Tuesday.
This would have posed a serious threat to the Greenway as one of the key motivators for public funding is the need to connect communities to the station by means other than driving there.
Our first phase build was dependent on taking over the haul road that Network Rail will build on the north side of the ine, and which would normally be removed. However, they are pleased to leave it on place, saving them the cost of removal and allowing us to upfade it to an acceptble standard.
So, big kudos to our newly elected MP, Gideon Amos, for persevering right to the very end of the debate on Tuesday to get an assurance from the Chancellor that projects which had already started would not be cancelled. It remains to be seen whether stage 4 GRIP funding (there are 8 stages, and stage 6 is construction – read more here) is considered to be ‘started’, but all the signs are pointing to that being so.
Project Work Book Funding
One of the vital pieces of work we have to get going is a rigorous review of both route options and engineering solutions along those routes. This takes the form of a detailed project work book prepared by our partner organisation Greenways and Cycleroutes. For those of you who regularly read these posts, you will have seen mention of the legendary John Grimshaw. he heads up Greenways and Cycleroutes, but prior to that he founded sustrans and was at its head for 30 years. John is a Civil engineer who is currently building the Strawberry Line and many other projects around the country.
Funding for this type of work is not easy to find, but Somerset Council was awarded £400,000 by Active travel England to finance the the ‘scoping’ work for schemes that have not yet started. We applied for a very small portion of this fund but were turned down ‘because it was not an on-road project’.
When you consider that a path that goes through the countryside costs about 1/6th of building on or adjacent to the highway, it does bring into question why Somerset Council would persist on a path alongside the A38 which they acknowledge will never get built.
We appreciate theyre are many competing priorotoes around the county, but when a community led organisation os offering to build (we’re not asking the council to build it) a multi-user path between the County town and its nearest large satellite, you would think this one would be a very attractive proposition. But no, it’s not. Maybe we need you to make your voices heard.
Street Stall
Finally, we have a street stall planned for this Saturday (3rd August 2024) in Taunton Town Centre. Come along and say hello – we’ll be very pleased to see you!
The Council had a full meeting on Monday, 9th April, the Council were asked to consider a proposal to support the Grand Western Greenway.
Councillors were told that the Grand Western Greenway Project aims to establish a greenway between Taunton Station and the proposed Wellington Station directly connecting the two towns linking with smaller communities along the route.
Councillors were asked, as the landowner, in co-operation with The Committee of the Frieze Hill Community Orchard Group and Turner’s Allotments, to support the necessary permissions required to upgrade the Right of Way (T33/12) running alongside Turner’s Allotments and the Community Orchard.
It was agreed to support this important active travel initiative. Councillors resolved to write a formal letter to the Grand Western Greenway Association affirming their support.
Deputy Leader of Taunton Town Council, Cllr Martin Straus said “Embracing sustainable active travel projects not only promotes healthier lifestyles but also fosters a stronger sense of community and environmental stewardship. Through initiatives that prioritise walking, cycling, and public transport, we’re paving the way for greener, more inclusive communities where everyone can thrive”
We are Walking the Greenway (again!)
Now the weather is clearing up a bit, we are back on the Greenway trail again. If you haven’t done so already (and even if you have), why not join us on Saturday, 20th April to Walk as much of the Greenway starting from Wellington and finishing at Staplegrove Road in Raunton.
We’ll be following the proposed route of the Greenway from Wellington to Taunton, as far as footpaths allow. Get up close and personal and learn more about the plans.The terrain is flat and covers an overall distance of 8 miles, finishing at Staplegrove Road in Taunton. We’ll be meeting at the rear entrance of Pritex (Relyon) at 9:30 and finishing at roughly 2:30, with a break at Bradford Bridge – snacks essential!
It has been an interesting end to 2023 for the Grand Western Greenway. We held our inaugural meeting 12 months ago and set the following objectives for the year which felt pretty stretching at the time:
Recruit 250 supporters over the next six months
Engage with two landowners and negotiate a written commitment
Participate in the Sustainable Travel Between Wellington and Taunton study commissioned by Somerset Council
Raise £1500
Create publicity material to promote the campaign
Participate in one promotion event such as the Wellington Pop-Up shop
We described the first year as one in which we wanted to make friends with people, and we have certainly done that! Let’s look at those objectives, and maybe you can decide how we’ve done.
Recruit 259 supporters. We have over 400 people subscribed to the campaign, and have recruited businesses ranging from small CICs to the largest employer in Somerset. Somerset NHS Trust and the Integrated Care Board as provider and commissioner recognise the enormous benefit to be had from ready access to nature and exercise. Do you reckon we can move that up to 1000 people this year?
We are actively engaged with two landowners, both of whom are having realistic and positive discussions with us about how they can best support the Greenway. There is a long way to go, but engagement and commitment are our touchstones for 2024.
We have participated in the unusual Somerset Council study. I say unusual because it came to a conclusion that they don’t seem to support themselves. That was that the Council should build a path alongside the A38. This is despite it costing at least four times as much as a countryside path, is generally unpopular with all but a small group of travellers, and starts a mile from Wellington town centre and ends at least another mile from Taunton town centre. The Council acknowledges that they would be very unlikely to build such a path and therefore fully support the community-led Greenway. This support is extended to any number of Parish and Town Councils, as well as receiving the enthusiastic backing of County Councillors across the political spectrum.
We have raised in excess of £1500 pounds through the generosity of Taunton Town
Richard Huish College have taken the Greenway on as a project for their A level art and design students to develop the materials to promote the campaign. They have received their brief from us, and have a deadline to complete in time for our last objective….
We have the Pop-Up shop in Wellington Fore Street booked for a week in April!
Somerset Council has published their much delayed options appraisal for sustasinable travel between Wellington and Taunton. It looked at an enormous amout of information about the two towns, our populations and the current forms of travel between them. Needless to say, they noted the majority used the heavily congested A38
They then looked at a number of routes for active travel and, after much deliberation, settled
on….. yes, you guessed it…. four routes along the A38; two on the north side and two on the south. They decided these would be favoured by people with less ability because there is no lighting on the Greenway – or on the A38 apart from a small section from the Chelston roundabout to the Blackdown Garden Centre. There were quite a few anomalous findings, but the crunch comes with cost. To build a route beside a road is at least four times as expensive as building one across open countryside!
So here is the conundrum. Somerset Council has no money to build anything so no action will
come of the report until such time as their finances are returned to health. But, because the Greenway is a community-driven project built by us, they fully support us in our endeavours. They also support building an A38 route in sections but cannot see themselves doing that now or at anytime in the forseeable future.We ran a small poll on this website a few weks ago asking you which route your preferred, and you responded with a thumping 85% in favour of a Greenway. As a result of consultation earlier this week, the Council will form a position statemnt stating the above which will go to the Council Executive in January forconsideration of adoption into policy.
This is important for us because we now know we have the full support of the council and any number of County Councillors. The Greenway appeals to so many both as a commuter route and a leisure facility. It is accessible to all ages and abilities and cannot fail to bring added prosperity to the area. So, bouyed by this result, we enter the new year with plans to start concentrating on phase one from Wellington to Nynehead.
This is the point where we need to start bolstering our very small team. We need people experienced in land negotiations, planners, builders and fundraisers. We have many partnerships already, but if you think you have something to offer, please get in touch.
There has been a campaign to get a traffic-free cycle route between Wellington and Taunton for many years. In the last three years this has involved a well supported protest and rally at which prominent local politicians including the current leader of Somerset Council pledged their support and committed to getting it done.
Somerset Council has commissioned consultants to put together an outline strategic business case for a cycle path from Wellington to Taunton. This is in preparation for the time when funding is available from the Department for Transport and other sources, and is looking at all the options between the railway line to the north and the M5 to the south.
The consultants will be conducting stakeholder consultations in the next few months, and we, the Grand Western Greenway Association, will lobby hard for our route to be favoured. The more people we have supporting us, the stronger our case will be, so please get involved.
