Phew, that was close!

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!

How we plan the route

If you've walked the Greenway with us, you will know there are many options for route selection. It would be wonderful to simply follow the route of the Grand Western Canal, but the topography today is much different now to what it was in the 1840s. Agriculture uses enormous arable fields through which the canal route would cut striaght through the middle, and the parts of the canal that remain are too precious to degrade further.

It is likely we will use many public rights of way which incorporate the canal route, but there are some parts where we have to move away from the river to overcome flooding problems.

One major obstacle to overcome is the Bristol to Exeter railway line. the canal was built long before the railway, so Brunel put in a tunnel through the embankment to accommodate it. This remained for the best part of 100 years until it was back-filled in the 1970's to strengthen the line for high-speed trains. Although very overgrown, we believe the portal still exists, but passage through the tunnel is a thing of the past.

Of course, there are level crossings, but we would really like to use the same route through the embankment as the one used by the River Tone at Pickings Bridge. Is that possible? Who knows, but we hope to find out.

Getting past the railway line is one thing, but avoiding the areas most prone to flooding is another. It seems likey our route may move to the north at Allerford and follow the line of the railway into Silk Mills, and then across Frieze Hill into the Firepool along Trenchard Way.

At this stage we have no certainty so, to gather more information about the engineering and access issues, we are hoping to commission Greenways and Cycle Routes Ltd to survey the route and create recommendations about practical options. We have applied to Somerset Council for funding from the grant they received from Active Travel England for such work, and are hoping for a response fairly soon.

If you would like to know more about the route and the countryside through which it will go, why not join us on one of our Walk the Greenway events

In the meantime, we are very grateful to those people who help to support our work with dontaions. If you would like to become one of those, please use the link below and accept our grateful thanks.

Greenway progress report

Wellington - phase 1

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.