Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00A very good afternoon to you people of Somerset. Once again, it's Daniel Mumby, your local
00:07democracy reporter. It's a glorious day out here on the edge of the Blackdown Hills. You
00:11join me on the A38 West Buckland Road, just outside Wellington. We're at the entrance
00:17to the West Park 26 Business Park area. You can just see the Costa Coffee heading straight
00:22in front of me, along with the recently opened KFC. But we're not here to eat or drink. Hopefully
00:27we can be merry though, in the non-alcoholic sense. What we're going to be doing today
00:31is walking from this huge business park, which is being still built out, over the units that
00:38scale off back into the distance there. We're going to be walking down to the Chelston area
00:43and then up into the town centre over the next 20 minutes, showing you how straightforward
00:48it is to walk and cycle into Wellington town centre as it currently stands, with the infrastructure
00:54that we have, and talking about the new 10-year plan to improve walking and cycling links
01:00across Wellington. And we're going to focus on this one as one of five routes that are
01:04being prioritised. As you can see, we're sort of 2 o'clock on a Saturday afternoon and it's
01:10pretty busy, with lots of traffic coming off Junction 26 at the M5, which is less than
01:16a mile in that direction. So having had my wits about me as I cross over. But rest assured
01:23we will be as safe as possible. As usual with these live streams, if you have any comments
01:27or questions, do drop them in. If I can get to them live, I will respond to as many of
01:32them as I can. Those that I don't, or if it's a question I can't answer in the interim,
01:37I will respond to retrospectively. So the reason that we're talking about this today
01:41is in the last couple of weeks, Somerset Council published its Wellington Local Cycling and
01:47Walking Infrastructure Plan, or LCWIP for short. It's a bit of a cumbersome abbreviation
01:52or acronym, I can never be sure which is the correct terminology in that case. But
01:56in a nutshell, that lays out aspirations to improve Wellington's walking and cycling network,
02:02also known as Active Travel, over the next 10 years to encourage more people to get out
02:07of their cars and walk, wheel or cycle for short journeys. We're talking one to two miles.
02:13And that plan identifies five routes, which are going to be prioritised over the next
02:1810 years to take account of new housing that is planned, including the Gerstenfield site
02:25and a couple of other sites along the A38 back where we started, to account for commercial
02:31growth, including a new business park, which is planned off the Chelston Link Road there,
02:38also known as the Concrete Carriageway, along with any growth in this area here. And hopefully,
02:45and we'll know by the end of June, to account for Wellington's new £15m railway station.
02:51We are waiting on the government spending review to give that the final yay or nay after
02:56months of uncertainty after the general election and the major transport projects review that
03:02was announced by Rachel Reeves at the end of July 2024. But hopefully, in a few short
03:07months, we'll have some clarity on that. The point being that these routes have been prioritised
03:13to take account of where the majority of that population growth is going to be coming,
03:19and therefore, the main arterial transport routes. Now, I'm not going to go through the
03:23whole plan over the course of this live stream, you'll be delighted to hear, because it's
03:27a very long and often technically cumbersome document. But what I'm going to do is give
03:33you a little bit of information about the five routes that are being prioritised. And
03:39then we will focus on the improvements that are coming to this particular route. So let's
03:45go through that in a nutshell to start with. The five routes that are being prioritised
03:50within the LCWIP for Wellington are the route between, you can see how busy this road is,
03:57the route between Rockwell Green and Wellington Town Centre, that's a long Exeter Road turning
04:02into Mantle Street. The second is the route that we're on at the moment from Chelston
04:08Business Park into the town centre via the Long Forth Farm site, which includes the Liddell
04:14and what hopefully will be the railway station. Route three, slightly more speculative in
04:20terms of we don't have a set route for it, but will be from the town centre up to the
04:26Tonedale area, so the regenerated mill and tonework site, where £20 million has been
04:31committed from the government's levelling up fund to essentially prime that area for
04:36a mixture of residential, commercial and possibly leisure or cultural development.
04:43Route four links Linnabon Way to Northern Wellington, coming out not far from the former
04:51Dolphin Pub. And finally, route five links Rockwell Green to Northern Wellington via
04:57the basins, the huge green wedge that separates the town and the village. And all five of
05:04these have been subject to a detailed, what's called a road safety audit, as we just cross
05:10over one of the turnings into the Wellington Business Park, which is expanding, as I said
05:15at the start of this live stream. All of these routes, including the one we're walking on
05:19at the moment, past Taunton Road, have been subject to a serious audit looking at the
05:26quality of the infrastructure that is currently here, identifying where improvements are
05:31most needed. And then that will set the direction of travel so that when a new housing development
05:36is approved, or new commercial units come on, the council has much more leverage, so
05:41to speak, in negotiations to secure funding to deliver improvements, whether it's brand
05:46new cycle links, or resurfacing the ones that we already have. One of the reasons I chose
05:52this one is that, first of all, it's off road, as you can see, we're next to Taunton Road
05:59itself, but it also illustrates the need for safety concerns, as well as just providing
06:06enough space for pedestrians and cyclists to walk along, and it takes in a large amount
06:11of the new housing and commercial development that's coming to Wellington in the coming
06:15years. I did think about doing this earlier in the day, when I thought the motorway traffic
06:22would be at its peak, and I'm glad that I decided not to, because even just after two
06:26on a Saturday afternoon, I'm having to shout a little bit. Thank goodness I had a drink
06:30before we started this, otherwise I'd be croaking within five minutes. And may I just say, before
06:35we get into the meat and drink of this route, how nice it is to see so many daffodils still
06:40out on the sides of these roads. Spring is definitely in the air, it may not be the warmest
06:45day, but the extra sunshine is welcome, and of course the clocks go forward tomorrow morning
06:50in the early hours, so we get an extra hour of daylight in the evenings, and I for one
06:55cannot wait. So, when looking at this section, Route 2, from the Chelston Business Park and
07:05the Concrete Carriageway, past the railway station side and into the town centre, here
07:10is what the LCWIP analysis had to say in terms of the current state of the route. The eastern
07:18part of this is genuinely wider, has 40mph speed limits, has some of the highest recorded
07:23traffic into town, with more than 14 and a half daily vehicle movements through Chelston
07:28as of 2019. We don't have more up-to-date figures than that I'm afraid, but I imagine
07:32it's larger following the recovery from the pandemic. Just getting the relevant part of
07:38the plan in front of me. The western section into and through the town centre has 30mph
07:43speed limits, but existing infrastructure is presently disjointed and not up to modern
07:48standards. The section between Chelston Roundabout and Ninehead Road has a shared cycleway footway,
07:54which is what we're walking on at the moment. However, west of Ninehead Road, where we're
07:59heading in a few minutes, sorry my phone keeps turning itself off, people cycling have to
08:05mix with the heavy traffic flows. There are a series of roundabouts which can be difficult
08:09to cross for people walking, wheeling and cycling, and there are no signal or zebra
08:13crossings along the length of Taunton Road for a distance of 1.2 miles or 2km. And I'm
08:20sure if you live in Wellington and are used to travelling along this road, most if not
08:24all of what that report says will ring true. This is one of the busiest roads, it connects
08:29Wellington Town Centre directly to Junction 26 via the concrete carriageway. We're still
08:34waiting on a start date for when a £5 million upgrade of that road is finally going to begin.
08:40The money's been sitting in the council's accounts since July 2020, and finally we expect
08:45that to get underway very soon and we're pushing the council for a date. And as you can see,
08:49the section that we're walking on at the moment, coming up towards Wellington's veterinary
08:54surgery and a small number of new homes that were delivered by Summerfield Developments
08:59a few years ago, this section is relatively wide and smooth. It's got a bit of a green
09:06buffer as well so it doesn't feel totally urbanised. And there is a limited path on
09:12the other side of the road, you might have seen the cyclists walking down, cycling down
09:18in the other direction. What I'm just going to do is move on to the verge slightly so
09:23that we don't get in this family's way. Thanks very much. It's always important when we're
09:29doing these live streams not to point members of the public in danger and if there are young
09:33children out especially, we try not to film them wherever possible. It's not just safeguarding,
09:38it's common sense and decency. I have no more right to be on this path than anybody else
09:42so let's be civilised. If you've only just joined me, it's Daniel Mumby here, your local
09:49democracy reporter. I'm in Wellington. We have been walking today on one of the five
09:56routes being prioritised for improvement and enhancement as part of the new Wellington
10:02Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plan, or LCWIP, that Somerset Council recently
10:09published. They've been looking at this section of Wellington's active travel network as we
10:15cross past the Blackdown Meadow housing and the Mount Vet veterinary hospital. We talked
10:24earlier in the live stream about some of the issues with the existing paths and now we're
10:30going to come on to what the plan envisions in terms of fixing that. They make three key
10:37recommendations to encourage more people to use this route for walking and cycling to
10:45and from Wellington Town Centre. They want to redesign all of the road junctions, providing
10:52new and improved crossings, especially at the Ninehead Road roundabout, where we'll
10:56be getting to in just a moment. They want to construct continuous cycle tracks through
11:02a combination of widening and upgrading existing routes and creating new sections to create
11:08a safe route into the town centre and out to Chelston, which would require a redesign
11:14of the existing road layout and the side roads. And they also want to implement measures to
11:21ensure lower traffic speeds west of Ninehead Road, including traffic calming and maybe
11:26even a 20 mile an hour speed limit. Now one thing I should make perfectly clear from the
11:31outset with all of the LC whips that the council has produced, of which the three most recent
11:39ones are Wellington, Chard and a combined one for Burnham-on-Sea and Highbridge, is
11:44that none of these proposed improvements have already got funding committed to them. As
11:51you will have seen from our coverage of the budget in recent weeks, Somerset Council is
11:55not flush with cash. In fact, I think you would struggle to find any local authority
11:59outside of the City of London, whether the city itself or Greater London, that can rub
12:04two pennies together. And therefore, delivering improvements and new connections, we will
12:11be reliant on grants from central government or from contributions for housing developers,
12:19especially when you're talking about on-road or next to the main carriageway developments
12:24like this. It's possible that other active travel links across Wellington, such as the
12:31Grand Western Greenway that we talked about either last year or earlier the year before,
12:36they could see the light of day much sooner because they are much less intrusive in terms
12:40of carriageway incursion and they can be delivered at a fraction of the cost of slapping down
12:45some tarmac. But in terms of this route, along one of Wellington's arterial routes, you are
12:52looking at a more invasive process and therefore it will be a case of once the plan is in place,
13:00the Council can go to developers and ask them to cough up some valuable funds. Funnily enough,
13:07a couple of days ago, before we started the stream, we haven't been streaming for a couple
13:11of days if you've only just joined us, no battery could last that long, but a couple
13:15of days ago Somerset Council received a communication from Active Travel England which distributes
13:21cycling funding on behalf of the Department for Transport, confirming an extra £690,000
13:30for the Council, which it has to spend in its entirety by the middle of 2027. And part
13:37of that money will be allocated towards designing improvements in Wellington. On top of that,
13:45the Council's local transport plan, which we've talked about extensively in recent months,
13:50includes a principal commitment to improving the Chelston Link Road and the Chelston Roundabout
13:58as a priority for walking and cycling. Now that presumably will be tied in with the improvements
14:04to the concrete carriageway when they commence, hopefully later in the year. Now we've crossed
14:12over the Ninehead Road Roundabout and I'm just going to pause here for two reasons.
14:18One to point out that it's not just a cycling route on one side of the busy road, there
14:24is a limited amount of path that goes down onto Ninehead Road and then over down the
14:29other side, as you can see that cyclist in the distance not doing me any favours by choosing
14:34not to use it, but it is down to individual's prerogative after all. So you can cycle in
14:40both directions on this part. The second thing I want to mention is this junction here, just
14:45off the roundabout, where you go into the caravan club and then off into the Lidl. If
14:51the station gets approval by the end of June, then what Network Rail and Cherwynn developments
14:58will be doing, the Spine Road to link the existing Ninehead Road junction with the station
15:04car park, which will be built off beyond the supermarket in that direction there, that
15:09will be remodelled and then extended out. This junction will be redesigned and as part
15:14of that, that cycle route will be extended and there will be cycle provision all the
15:18way up the Spine Road, as far as the station car park, with an additional link straight
15:25from the car park down onto Taunton Road here, where a new pedestrian crossing will be delivered.
15:32Cherwynn Developments, also known as West of England Developments, it's the same company
15:36under a different name, have promised to deliver those in full before any of the new homes
15:43are occupied, which I think we'll all agree makes a nice change from some of the housing
15:47developments we've had to deal with in Somerset of late. And they've also promised that if
15:53the station doesn't go ahead, the land that's allocated for it will remain allocated for
16:00the next 10 to 15 years. They will not simply build more homes on it and then kill off the
16:04project altogether. Now, if you're paying attention, and I sincerely hope that you are,
16:11you will notice a change in the surfacing here. We are now on the pavement and the cycle
16:18lane is now down onto the road itself. Not only that, but the pavement itself will soon
16:25run out, so I'm going to have to cross over in a minute. The new pedestrian crossing that
16:32is planned, as part of the 200 homes that will be built to unlock the station land,
16:41will be erected somewhere along this stretch. And as we'll see, I think that is an excellent
16:47idea. In fact, I think it's around here that this is going to be created. What I'm going
16:54to do is quickly nip across, and what I'll do is I'll get back over to the other side
16:59wherever possible, but I think me walking along a cycle lane on road is asking for trouble.
17:07It's just a short distance. We should be able to get back on the correct side, or the
17:12intended side, once we get to what I'm going to call the Long Forth Road roundabout, or
17:18the Pre-Tex roundabout. Is it Pre-Tex or Pry-Tex? Any Wellington people, let me know how that's
17:23actually pronounced. If you've only just joined me, it's Daniel Mumby here, your local democracy
17:30reporter, and I'm in Wellington talking about Somerset Council's new cycling, sorry, local
17:37cycling and walking infrastructure plan. Even for a politics journalist like myself,
17:41it's a bit of a mouthful. A 10-year plan to improve Wellington's cycling and pedestrian
17:47links, making it easier to get around even the busiest roads like this. Now, as you can
17:57see, true to the safety report that we saw in that section of the LCWIP that I read aloud,
18:07this is the point along Taunton Road into the town centre where the Provision 4 cyclist
18:12becomes rather haphazard. I'm going to cross back over onto the left-hand side after this
18:17great colourful motorcycle has driven past, because I think, in order to be the most honest
18:23with you, we have to give you an accurate picture of what's here already, without putting
18:27myself in too much danger. Thank you, it was helpful, I'll check that out. Sorry, I just
18:33missed the early part of your comment, but thank you very much for your company. Thank
18:36you to everyone who is tuning in this afternoon. If you live in Wellington, special shout-out
18:41to you. Let me know what you're up to on this sunny, breezy spring afternoon. How many of
18:48you have already broken out the mower and the strimmers, giving its grass the first
18:51cut after the long winter? So, this roundabout here, if you don't know the area very well,
18:59bends off round to the main part of the Longforth Farm development, of around 200 odd houses,
19:06which ends at the Prytex and Relyon factories, which are two of the town's main employers.
19:16And now, again, to reinforce the sense of frustration, we're going to have to cross
19:21over again, because this part of the cycle route is going on-road again, and I don't
19:25really fancy it. So we're just going to get over here, go back on ourselves a little bit,
19:32if nothing else reinforces how higgledy-piggledy and slapdash the existing arrangement is.
19:37And this is one of the reasons why you don't see so many people out cycling on a day like
19:43this in one of Somerset's prettiest towns. If you've never visited Wellington, I do recommend
19:48it, and I'm not just saying that because I live near it or my parents live near it. It's
19:53genuinely a very picturesque little town, a great way to while away a couple of hours,
19:59and if you've never walked up at Fox's Field near Tone Nail Mill, it's well worth a trip,
20:05though bring Wellingtons if it's been raining, because there's a lot of mud up there.
20:10So we're now coming into the town centre proper, just on the outskirts here, and you can see,
20:16although there are still demarcated on-road cycle lanes, not in the traditional red paint
20:26that we associate now, but space is increasingly at a premium. It's fine on this side, where
20:33there's actually a physical pavement which you could use in extremis, but if you're coming
20:36into the town centre from Chelston, I mean, at the moment it's maybe not life-threatening,
20:43it's wide enough to meet legal requirements, but if you had lots of HGVs coming up beside
20:48you, it could be pretty nerve-wracking. And this is one of the reasons why this route
20:54has been prioritised within both the LCWIP and the county-wide local transport plan.
21:00Wellington is taking a huge amount of new housing in the coming years. We've got Gerston
21:05Fields being slowly but surely built out further down West Buckland Road. There is talk of
21:12a further 75 houses between that site and West Park 26 itself. We've got 315 new homes,
21:23all but certain to be approved out of Rockwell Green, following a farcical situation where
21:30Somerset Council declined to defend an appeal against the site. And there is talk as well,
21:38once the Monument View development on the other side of Exeter Road is built out completely
21:41with the new care home that's going there, of possibly another 250 homes off Nalwher's
21:47Lane and maybe the same amount off Aldwych Road. Wellington, it's one of those situations
21:55where a town becomes an attractive prospect for development because of its proximity to
22:02the M5, because it's near the Devon border, because you can get into the Blackdowns very
22:07easily or take the back routes up to Exmoor and Witherliscombe. Wellington has a lot going
22:12for it but the downside of that is that it ends up taking a lot of housing in one go,
22:19even with the phosphate crisis, and the infrastructure, whether it's cycle routes or schools, doctors
22:27or dentists, it often doesn't keep pace. And we wait with bated breath. The government's
22:35planning white paper showing how the planning system is going to be reformed and sped up
22:39and what that will mean for the delivery of infrastructure, including cycle lanes. You
22:44can see at this point there is no provision at all on this section of the main road if
22:51you are heading eastbound out of the town centre and what's left of the cycle route
22:57heading in from Chelston terminates at this junction with Priory Road, or is it just called
23:02Priory? Stand corrected. In any event, this is the extent of the infrastructure at the
23:12moment. If you are cycling in from this point on, you are sharing the road space entirely
23:19with traffic and that might be fine if you're an experienced rider, the Councillor Edric
23:25Hobbeses of the world, or the Mike Rigby's for that matter, but if you're an inexperienced
23:30rider like myself, a beginner, someone who hasn't set foot on a bike in years for a
23:35whole plethora of reasons, I can imagine this would be pretty off-putting. And hopefully
23:42this 10-year plan that's been put in place will start to bear fruit very soon, providing
23:47links not only from the new homes out into the town centre, or up into the town centre
23:53I should say, but also linking up other amenities like this beautiful church. Mothering Sunday
24:00of course tomorrow and only three more weeks until Easter Sunday, so you've only got three
24:05more weeks of self-denial if you're doing Lent like myself. Big up to everyone who's
24:13made it this far without caving. And if you have caved, never mind, just get back on the
24:18horse and keep going. Three more weeks until we can eat chocolate or whatever it is we've
24:23given up once again. Just going to wait for a safe moment to cross over Buckwell, the
24:32distinctive black street posts of Wellington, and the beautiful Tudor-esque design of these
24:39buildings as we come onto High Street. Of course, I mentioned about dentists, I'll just
24:46flag this up very quickly. We have reported on this in the past. Currently, if you are
24:53in Wellington, there are no NHS dentists. You have to rely on the private dentistry offered
24:58by either Wellington Dental Practice up there, or next door, the Woodlands Dental Practice.
25:03However, by the end of the autumn, hopefully sooner, but certainly by the end of the autumn,
25:10a new NHS dentist will be opening somewhere in the town centre. NHS Somerset's Integrated
25:18Care Board have confirmed that they are finalising locations now, and we will give you more details
25:24as soon as that is available. But for now, that's where we're going to end. We've made it to the
25:29junction along Forth Road, just where the public toilets are going to be reinstated, after the
25:35town council got permission for that little scheme, which will make a huge difference.
25:38Hopefully this has been illuminating for you. If you've missed any part of the livestream,
25:42it'll be available on our social media channels for the next 30 days. After that,
25:47we will make permanent copies available by other means if you're interested. And I shall be back
25:52next weekend for another livestream. It's looking at the moment like we're going to be in Yeovil,
25:57talking about the route from the new homes on the up Monford Urban Extension, down Lyde Road,
26:02to Yeovil Penmill Railway Station. If that changes, I'll let you know. And in the meantime,
26:07from Wellington town centre, this is Daniel Mumby, your local democracy reporter. Have a brilliant
26:13rest of the weekend, and happy Mother's Day to you all. Bye for now.