Tag: a38

  • Council conundrum

    Council conundrum

    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.

  • Which way would you go?

    Which way would you go?

    Somerset Council is consulting about sustainable travel between Wellington and Taunton. If you were a walker, wheeler or a cyclist travelling for pleasure, leisure, work or anything else, which way would you choose to go?

    The choices are,

    • a path on either the north or south side of the A38 from the Chelston roundabout to the new Stonegallows roundabout.
    • a traffic-free greenway route along Grand Western Canal from Wellington (from Longforth Farm) to Taunton Station

  • How is the campaign going?

    How is the campaign going?

    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.