Crewkerne residents left isolated by delays to new link road

Taylor Wimpey Exeter is currently constructing the Wool Gardens housing estate on the Crewkerne Key Site, which will eventually comprise 635 homes, a 66-bed care home and commercial space between the A30 Yeovil Road and the A356 Station Road.

The developer originally promised that a new signal-controlled junction on Station Road, joining up with the southern end of the new link road, would be in place before 55 homes within the development had been built and occupied.

But the delivery of this junction and the wider Crewkerne Link Road (CLR) has been pushed back until nearly 200 homes within the entire site have been completed and occupied, following discussions with Somerset Council which concluded in late-May.

Until this road is completed and subsequently adopted, residents will have to travel through the Blacknell Lane industrial estate to access local shops, leisure facilities and medical help – a route which has limited and inconsistent provision for pedestrians and cyclists.

Taylor Wimpey has said it was committed to making walking and cycling into the town easier, pledging £137,000 towards new schemes under its existing legal agreements with the council.

The southern junction designs (and those of the entire link road) were agreed with South Somerset District Council when outline planning permission was granted back in May 2020.

As well as serving the first 110 homes within the development site, the Station Road junction will also provide a safer access to a 66-bed care home which will be delivered by LNT Care Developments after planning permission was granted in mid-May.

Under the original legal agreements (which were only signed off in July 2023), the Station Road junction had to be completed before 55 homes in the southern end of the development were occupied.

Furthermore, the rest of the link road (including a corresponding junction at Yeovil Road) had to be completed before a single home within the northern end of the site was completed and occupied.

Under the newly revised agreement, neither of these highway improvements will have to be delivered in full until 199 homes within the entire site are occupied – comprising all 110 homes within the southern parcel and 89 of the 525 homes within the northern parcel.

Until the new junctions and link road are finished in full, all residents will have to use Blacknell Lane to drive, walk and cycle from their homes to local facilities.

Blacknell Lane is home to the town’s main industrial estate, along with its household waste recycling centre, waste water treatment plant and fire station.

Many of the roads within the Wool Gardens estate currently have unfinished pavements or raised ironworks before the final road surface is applied, making it difficult for pedestrians to navigate.

Once out of the housing estate, the pavement either narrows through certain sections of the industrial estate or – for a few hundred yards – disappears completely, with pedestrians and cyclists having to handle heavy traffic and copious parked cars at peak times.

Julie Chant from local campaign group Space4Crewkerne said: “During the week this road is very busy and parked cars all along this road.

“Not only is there no pavement, but people have no option but to walk amongst the traffic.”

Once residents have negotiated Blacknell Lane and Cropmead to reach the A356 South Street, they still have to negotiate parked cars and occasionally narrow pavements to reach the town centre – with cyclists having to share the road with HGVs and other large vehicles.

Taylor Wimpey said its changes to the delivery of the CLR were intended to bring forward work at the northern end of the site, allowing both ends of the new road to be delivered together.

Ground clearance on the A30 Yeovil Road has already begun, in line with the terms of the outline planning permission – but construction of the 525 homes within this northern parcel cannot begin until the reserved matters application has been approved.

A spokesman said: “Following discussions with Somerset Council, we have submitted a modification to our Wool Gardens development, including the planned Station Road junction.

“This modification aims to provide access from both ends of the site ahead of the completion of the wider CLR, benefiting residents and road users.

“We are currently awaiting approval from the council before commencing these works. Once approved, we will progress with the construction timeline.

“We remain fully committed to our Section 106 obligations, including the £137,250 contribution paid to the council for cycling infrastructure improvements.

“We continue to work closely with the council and local groups, including Space4Crewkerne, to ensure safe walking and cycling connections, and are dedicated to delivering all promised community infrastructure.”

Since the legal agreements were modified, Taylor Wimpey had submitted two further, minor planning applications (known as non-material amendments, or NMAs) to alter the design of the Station Road junction – ostensibly to “accelerate the CLR construction” and reduce the number of trees that need to be removed on Station Road itself.

The developer is working closely with LNT Care Developments to ensure the delivery of the new care home does not interfere with the delivery of any highway or footway improvements within the Wool Gardens site.

The company is also working with National Grid (which runs the substation between Blacknell Lane and Station Road) over the provision of a further footpath to the south of Blacknell Lane, providing a more direct link to the railway station and town centre.

A spokesman for Somerset Council said: “We’re working positively with the developer to deliver all the infrastructure obligations.”

A decision on the detailed designs for the remaining homes within the Wool Gardens estate is expected to come before the council’s planning committee south for a decision before Christmas.