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.
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.
I’ve made a few mentions about the station and its precarious journey to being built over the last year or so, but it is worth mentioning again. Although it would indeed be a bonus to add this to the public transport mix for Wellington, it is not vital for the Greenway. Yes, it would mean a haul-road would be built which we would adopt but, as I mentioned before, the proposal to build housing on the north side of the line would have to include an active travel plan. The developers are supporters of the Greenway, and their plans indicate they would either upgrade the haul-road or build their own path from Tonedale to the Nynehead Road.
Nevertheless, the Department for Transport has not shut down the Wellington Station negotiation. The Chancellor specifically singled out developments around transport hubs to boost growth, and there is no better example of this than Wellington. Gideon Amos MP has met the railway minister Lord Hendy several times, and is due to so again this week. This time he is taking a coachload of his constituents, and I’ll be there pushing the case for active travel.
Somerset NHS Foundation Trust supports the Greenway
The Trust that delivers all acute secondary and some primary care across Somerset is the largest emplyer in the county. Their Chief Nurse and Chief Executive agreed to an interview in which they discussed their support of the Greenway and the benefit it will bring to their patients and colleagues. The video is still being edited, but you can have a sneak peek here
Route and Engineering Assessment
Again, I’ve written about the work being done by Greenways and Cycle-Routes Ltd. Their principle, John Grimshaw (founder and former CEO of Sustrans) will report over the next month or two, and we are hoping to discuss this and other issues at public meetings over the summer in Taunton and Wellington. Are you interested in this?
Somerset Council Active Travel Team
It appears that, after a number of people moved away from the AT Team last year, recruitment has seen the appointment of three new officers. They are clearly very busy because, despite a number of attempts by us and councillors, we have yet to make contact with them. Let’s hope that is just a temporary hiatus as they settle into post, and that we can get talking very soon.
Public Talks and Presentations
we are pleased to report we have now spoken to every Rotary Club (I think) in Wellington and Taunton. They have been kind enough to show great interest in the project and have demonstrated their support. Wellington WI have done the same, and we are always very happy to come and spread the word if you have groups that would be interested.
Throughout the summer we hope to get to more public events such as street fairs markets. We are negotiating with some of the larger employers such as Musgrove Park Hospital and the Hydrographic Office to operate a display in their public spaces. If you would like to help out with any of those, we would be very happy to see you!
That’s it for this week, but let me have your questions and comments which I will do my best to answer.
Many of you will know of the work commissioned by Grand Western Greenway in collaboration with Greenways and Cycleroutes Ltd is that is an important step towards exploring route options and assessing engineering challenges. This report will guide us as we move forward in negotiations and implement practical solutions.
The completion of this report will clarify which stakeholders need to be consulted for access permissions across various lands. Additionally, it helps us address practical issues like flooding, road and river crossings, and planning for future maintenance.
A heartfelt thank you goes to both the Wellington and Taunton Town Councils for their generous funding. Their support is crucial in helping us make significant advancements.
Current Progress on Route Planning
We are pleased to share that we have secured permission to begin the planning phase for paths at both ends of the project. This includes a proposed route from Taunton to Silk Mills and one from Wellington to Nynehead Road. These developments are a major step toward making the Greenway a reality.
In discussions with a developer currently at the pre-planning application stage, we’ve found promising cooperation. The developer plans to build new homes on the north side of the railway line in Wellington, stretching from the station site to Tonedale. They have included the Greenway in their development plans, regardless of Network Rail’s plans for a halul-road in that area.
Outline plan for a development north of the railway line
The proposed Greenway is shown on the map with a blue dotted line. Existing footpaths are marked in yellow, while the thick orange line represents the Bristol Exeter railway line. On the western side, you’ll find Tonedale, with Nynehead Road to the east.
In addition, Langford Budville Parish Council has an initiative to create a path connecting their community to Tonedale. A vital part of the developer’s proposal includes integrating a pathway from the Sewage Treatment Plant access road into the housing site. This will provide users direct access to the Greenway, the railway station, and the town, eliminating the need to navigate the busy B3187. This creates a safer environment for pedestrians.
Community Engagement and Membership Drive
Connecting with the community and increasing membership support is a priority we take seriously. Our approach includes participating in various events and discussions throughout the year.
In just this past year, we have visited almost all the Rotary Clubs in both Wellington and Taunton. These visits are an opportunity to raise awareness about the Greenways and Cycleroutes project and discuss its community benefits.
Through these engagements, we share insights on the planned pathways, showcasing how they can improve local connectivity and promote cycling and walking in the area. Engaging the community inspires more residents to contribute to our mission.
Overcoming Engineering Challenges
The ongoing report from Greenways and Cycleroutes Ltd focuses on identifying practical engineering challenges. Recognizing these hurdles early will allow us to devise effective strategies.
For instance, we aim to address potential flooding areas and plan safe roadway crossings for everyone. We are also assessing the logistics surrounding river crossings. By tackling these factors early on, we can create a well-constructed and sustainable route that benefits the community for years.
Railway bridge over the River Tone
Understanding these challenges will also aid our discussions with landowners and stakeholders. By being prepared, we can offer solutions that align with their interests while advancing our Greenways goals.
Walk the Greenway
If you haven’t already done so (or maybe you have and want to do it again) we will be Walking the Greenway on Saturday, 15th March. It will get as close as we can on public footpaths, but gives a pretty good idea of exactly why we work so hard to achieve this route as an accessible route for all.
The walk is about 8.5 miles from Wellington to Taunton leaving at 09:30 and arriving between 1:30pm and 2:00pm. The return trip is by bus unless you make other arrangements.
We are pleased to let you know that the Grand Western Greenway has become a Community Interest Company (CIC)! This is a significant milestone for us, and we couldn’t have achieved it without your support and dedication.
As a CIC, our mission remains steadfast: to create an active travel route through the countryside from Wellington to Taunton. This new status allows us to operate with greater flexibility and ensures that all our efforts are directed towards community benefit.
Join Us as a Member
We are pleased to invite you to become a member of the CIC. By joining, you will have the opportunity to actively participate in our decision-making process with voting rights. Your voice will help shape the future of the Grand Western Greenway.
Membership Details:
Annual Subscription: £5 per year
Benefits: Membership of a CIC is akin to becoming a shareholder of a limited company. You will have the right to attend and have voting rights at the AGM.
Your membership will not only support our ongoing projects but also empower you to have a say in how we grow and develop. Together, we can make a lasting impact.
How to Join:
Joining is simple! Visit our website here and follow the membership link. We look forward to welcoming you as a valued member of our community.
Grant funding awarded for engineering assessment
We are very lucky to have the support of the Wellington and Taunton Town Councils. Both of them give us enthusiastic support, and they have recently translated that into financial support for us to begin assessing the engineering and logistical challenges of building this route through the countryside.
As we get a clearer understanding of what these are, we will be able to have a clearer indication of the best route for us to negotiate with local landowners. The study is being undertaken by Greenways and Cycleroutes led by the eminent John Grimshaw. John is the Civil Engineer who founded and led Sustrans for 30 years, and who is busy building the Strawberry Line and consulting on many others.
John Grimshaw CBE at work on the Strawberry Line in Somerset
Wellington and taunton Councils have jointly funded the study by each making a grant of £4000 for which we are very grateful!
This illustration of the new Wellington station was provided by Network Rail as part of the planning application for the recently approved housing development. It is important to note that this is purely a representation and not the final design.
Nevertheless, if we assume we are looking at the south side (i.e. the Wellington side) and the land to the north is open country, Network Rail will be building a haul road to facilitate construction. We aren’t quite sure where it will join the road network, but we are confident it will run from the Longforth Bridge over the line, and alongside the track to this point.
It has been communicated to us that Network Rail has decided not to dismantle the road, which is the standard procedure. A development firm interested in the land on the northern side has committed to improving the road and integrating it into the area to establish a direct travel connection between the housing and the town.
We have an agreement with the owners of the Nynehead Boat Lift to have access around the lift out onto the Nynehead Road. There are some details to iron out about further access, but we may have come very close to establishing a link from Longforth to the Nynehead Road. The next part will be from there to Nynehead, thus establishing a traffic-free route between the village and Wellington.
The Taunton End
For those of you who have walked the walk with us, you will know that the path aims to cross the southern boundary of the Frieze Hill Community Orchard along the public bridleway to Staplegrove Road, next to Turner’s Allotments.
We had a very constructive meeting with representatives from the Orchard and the Allotments to discuss the nature of the path, the way it is constructed, the types of fencing we would use, and future maintenance. I think it is fair to say we were able to answer their questions in a way that alleviated any concerns they may have had.
As we reported recently, Taunton Town Council has given us their support in writing as we begin to discuss our aspirations with the public rights of way team at Somerset Council. We appreciate we have further discussions to have with homeowners and other stakeholders, but we see some real progress in establishing a route through to the Silk Mills Road.
Walk the Greenway
New dates are on our website to Walk the Greenway in June, July, and August. If you haven’t done so, have a look and see if it is for you. 8.5 miles of flat walking taking about 4 hours, followed by a very nice bus trip back to Wellington. Details here
Feasibility Studies
When planning a route such as this, we will rely on the expertise of others to a large extent. Our partnership with Greenways and Cycle Routes Ltd is one such example.
John Grimshaw, the man on the left in the image, is the founder and director of Sustrans. He is credited with establishing the Bristol to Bath Cycle Path and numerous others throughout the country. A civil engineer by profession, John is featured in the newest section of the Strawberry Line leading to Wells. Together with Caroline Levitt, he leads Greenways and Cycle Routes and has welcomed us as one of their partners.
We plan to commission these studies to provide more certainty to the route and identify obstacles. Somerset Council has received a £400,000 grant from Active Travel England for route development, and we will apply to them for funding, but there is no guarantee of success.
Nevertheless, conducting a campaign incurs expenses. While we have received generous support from a few organizations (Wellington Town Council, Taunton Town Council, and Somerset Community Fund), we constantly require additional funds to sustain our efforts.
We appreciate any donation, regardless of its size, as a sign of the genuine support we have received from our supporters, both currently and in the future.
This year is going to be one in which we get down to real talking and, so far, it is going well.
It has always been our plan to build the path in phases starting at either end. I’m pleased to say the development at the Wellington end of the station and hundreds of houses offer great opportunities. Network Rail plan to have the station open by May 2026 at the latest, and part of that construction will be a haul-road on either side of the line. It looks likely that will remain in situ, which gives us a significant part of the phase 1 build at the western end.
At the eastern end, there is also industrial development planned which offers similar opportunities. The new Taunton Town Council are hugely supportive of our ambitionbs and have already grant-aidid us with a small initial sum. We are hoping they will adopt a proposal through council to support us which paves the way for access along land they already manage on behalf of Somerset Council.
On behalf of our group, can I thank you for your continuing support, and can I also remind you we are conducting walks along the greenway (or as close as we can get to it) each month. The next is on 23rd March from Wellington to Taunton. it is about 8.5 miles of flat walking which might have had an opportunity to dry out over the next couple of weeks. Please join us if you can https://www.grandwesterngreenway.co.uk/events
With your support, we have made much progress with the Greenway.
Somerset Council has agreed to fully support the project (sadly, without any money) despite their own options assessment supporting a route alongside the A38.
We have presented our campaign to numerous parish and town councils, all of whom have pledged their support. Important County councillors are actively lobbying on our behalf, and we have developed relationships with innumerable influential people and organisations.
Somerset Foundation NHS Foundation Trust is the biggest employer in Somerset with responsibility for all the hospital and community care in both mental and physical health, as well as running a number of GP surgeries across the county. The Trust supports the Greenway at Board level in recognition of the crucial part that nature and exercise has to play in the health of our communities.
The Somerset Integrated Care Board (it has had many names and guises before including the Health Authority, PCT, PCG etc) welcome the Greenway as an active space that can be used for Social Prescriptions i.e. supported exercise and activity in conjunction with traditional treatment.
Wellington Town Council strongly demonstrated their support of the Greenway by identifying £10,000 in their 2024 budget to be used for kickstarting the campaign and supporting its development.
Somerset Community Trust has generously granted a significant sum for us to develop materials to promote the campaign and to continue our development.
So, thank you to you, our supporters. Thank you for coming on our journey, and especially to those of you who have ‘Walked the Greenway’ with us. We continue to do this on a monthly basis so, if you want to join us on one, sign up on the Events page on our website.
We have had tremendous support for our walks along the Greenway over the last few months. We continue to plod though the mud (it;s not that bad) throughout the winter, and have our next coming up on Sunday, 10th December. This will go from Taunton to Wellington starting at 09:30. It takes about four hours to cover the 8 miles.
If you know Whar3Words, we gather here ///plug.grace.spoken and finish here //stoppage.skims.runners. More information and sign uphere
We are very grateful to Wellington Town Council for their support. In their recent meeting to set next year’s budget, they created a sum of £10,000 to be made available to us upon application. This was a strategy used to kickstart the reinstatement of Wellington Railway Station and the refurbishment of Wellington Monument. Both these projects have been succesful, and we have every confidence the Greenway will be the next one
Somerset Council has circulatred the Sustainability Options study into travel between Wellington and Taunton commissioned last year by Somerset West and Taunton Council. Although it makes much of various routes around the A38, we are confident the council will put its support behind the Greenway. We know that the Greenway would be at least four times cheaper than a path by the highway, and that the community-driven nature of this project (like the Strawberry) is an attractive option for a council that has no money!
In 2022, the long standing campaign to see a cycle route built between Wellington and Taunton focused on a route alongside the A38. Somerset Council pledged to establish the route by 2025, although this has slipped and slipped as all pledges do.
The most recent development at a cost of £50,000, has been made by the Council to commission a Strategic Outline Business Case (SOBC), the purpose of which is to be prepared for submission to the Department for Transport (DfT) in the event of competitive funding becoming available – an ‘oven-ready’ plan! There is no such funding at the moment, and the SOBC has been delayed by several months before it made any real progress.
The firm of consultants preparing it, Stantec , are briefed to put forward a plan for’ improving sustainable transport between the two towns, and this is suitably vague so that everything, including cycling, can be looked at. We would have preferred them to focus solely on creating a cycle and walking path, but this specification as it is could include rail travel, bus travel or, as one officer recently said in jest, ‘the addition of anothe rcar lane on the A38!’
Nevertheless, the SOBC (or feasibility study as we would prefer to call it) is underway, and making progress towards a set of stakeholder workshops. The Grand Western Greenway Association has submitted a proposal document to Somerset Council and to Stantec. We have engaged with our pratners as we developed it, and you can download it below.
