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00:00Greetings once again, people of Somerset. It's Daniel Mumby, your local democracy reporter
00:07here on another crisp January morning, and you join me once again on the eastern edge
00:12of Bridgewater. I'm standing off Dunweir Lane, a stone's throw from the A372 between Bridgewater
00:20and Western Zoyland. You can see the Strawberry Grange housing development off Bower Lane
00:24just in front of us there, off the roundabout that was delivered in the last 12 months.
00:29But we're not talking about Bower Lane today. We are heading south on Dunweir Lane, looking
00:34at the Follett's Farm site, which you can see in front of us. And this site here, which
00:39is currently Greenfields Agricultural Land, part of a working farm, as far as I understand
00:44it, will be changing drastically in the coming years, following the approval of 530 new houses
00:53by Somerset Council. You might have seen some reports in the Bridgewater Mercury and other
00:57publications about this planning development being finally approved. Just to clarify a
01:03couple of things. First of all, it was actually approved by councillors all the way back in
01:08February 2023. There was a public vote. Originally, it was going to be 560 homes on this site,
01:15which lies, as you can probably hear in the background, just a stone's throw from the
01:19M5. It was downgraded to 530, following lengthy negotiations between the council and the developer.
01:27And then, after the decision by Sedgemoor District Council's Development Committee in
01:33February 2023, one of the last big developments it approved before the District Council was
01:40subsumed into the new Somerset-wide local authority, there have been nearly two years
01:46of negotiations with Somerset Council and the developers involved, namely Lance, Alec
01:54Rainey House and Hannock Homes Development Ltd. They have been negotiating for two years,
01:59securing the designs of the development, certainly the access arrangements, looking at the different
02:04contributions that are going to be secured in terms of road improvements, contributions
02:09for health facilities and education in this part of town. So, really, what we're talking
02:15about today is all of those legal agreements being done and dusted, which means detailed
02:22applications for each phase of the new development can come forward and construction can easily
02:26start within the next six to nine months, if all goes well. So, what we're going to
02:31do today is we're going to walk along Dunweir Lane, which we are heading past at the moment,
02:37past the existing houses on Somerville Way, if I'm not mistaken. Correct me if I'm wrong.
02:42You can see the existing farm building is just humming into view now. We're going to
02:47take a little loop following Dunweir Lane all the way to the bottom, under the M5, looping
02:52back round along the section of the River Parrot and then cutting back up through Plum
02:59Lane and we're going to essentially do two things. One is talking about the area as it
03:05currently stands as a historic time capsule, I suppose, of immortalising these fields before
03:12they are concreted over forever. Like I say, that could start within a matter of months,
03:16certainly by the end of the year we'd expect some activity on the site, but also talking
03:20about what's coming here next and how the people living here are going to access their
03:27local facilities, whether on foot or using a car. The last time we were down this way
03:33is, I think it was around August or September last year, where we were talking about the
03:40fact that there won't be an Eastern Relief Road connecting this site to Squibbers Way
03:48over in the Taunton Road area of Bridgewater. All of the car traffic will be using the A372
03:55which we showed at the start of the stream, but we'll come on to that in a little bit
03:58of detail later. As per usual with these live streams, if you have any comments or questions,
04:04do drop them in. I'll get to as many of them as I can whilst I'm rolling live. Those I
04:10don't get to live, I'll do my best to respond to retrospectively. And as per usual with
04:15these live streams, if you post anything uncivilised or defamatory, it's not going to get read
04:20out so let's all show a little respect to each other. So let me give you background
04:26if you're not familiar. This development site, Follett's Farm, is one of three within the
04:31East Bridgewater Housing Allocation, which is a stripper plan set aside for new housing
04:38within the Sedgmore Local Plan which runs until 2032, though it will be replaced by
04:442028 with the new Somerset Wide Local Plan. And essentially it envisions more than 1,200
04:50new homes being delivered between the A39 Bath Road, near where the Poulton Bower Special
04:57School and the Community Hospital is, all the way down either side of the A372 and then
05:04creeping down to the bottom of Dunwear Lane here. Now, the Strawberry Grange site, which
05:09we showed at the beginning of the live stream, is the furthest advanced of three big development
05:15parcels within that site. That's delivering a total of 260 homes through Countryside Partnerships.
05:22Hannock Homes and its partners, like I say, are delivering 530 on the Follett's Farm site.
05:29You can just see the entrance to it there. So that will be coming forward in due course.
05:35The remaining section, which covers the land between Poulton Bower Special School and the
05:42edge of the Strawberry Grange site, that will comprise around 750 homes, along with a new
05:48primary school and possibly some commercial space as well. Those plans are at a much earlier
05:54stage. We are expecting Somerset Council to debate them at its Planning Committee North,
06:01which handles major decisions for Bridgewater, sometime within the current calendar year.
06:06Still feels a bit weird saying 2025, but here we are. And then it could take another couple
06:12of years for work to actually start on that. So it's a phased approach, albeit not the
06:17most planned phasing I've ever come across. And what's crucial about those last 750 homes is that
06:26they will finish a spine road which will link the A372 and the A39 together, providing an alternative
06:33route into the town centre for those property dwellers. On Dunway Lane, as you can see,
06:39there are some considerable challenges in terms of road safety. The roads here are wide enough
06:44for cars to pass in each direction, but there's very little by way of pedestrian safety. There's
06:49a verge that you can stand on if there's a car coming, though you wouldn't want to fall into
06:53that ditch. There is no designated pavement as such. So there are a lot of improvements that
06:59will be needed to be delivered as part of these 530 homes, which have now been given the go-ahead.
07:05Good morning. As you see, I'm not the only one taking advantage of the clear skies. It is still
07:12very cold, but it's good to see people out and about having some exercise. So there will be a
07:18spine road running through this particular estate, and that will run off the new roundabout at the
07:29A372. Dunway Lane itself will essentially remain open for existing local traffic. Of course, it
07:37runs all the way out and eventually links up with the A372 nearer to Weston's Island, but traffic
07:44will be directed onto the main road through the new homes, which will re-emerge onto Dunway Lane
07:52somewhere around this area, maybe a little further south. We will post a link in the description once
07:58we've finished this live stream, pointing you in the direction to the article that we ran back in
08:05February 2023, when the plans were first approved by Sedgemaw councillors. And it's fortuitous that
08:12that gentleman has just gone past on a bicycle, because we'll be talking about walking and cycling
08:16improvements very shortly. In the meantime though, I just want to point out a little couple of bits
08:25and pieces while we're coming here to the bottom of Dunway Lane. We're in the parish of Bridgewater
08:30with ours of course. Let that gentleman go by. So this is the existing junction with Plum Lane,
08:39one of two Plum Lane junctions, because it does have two different branches. We'll be coming back
08:45up this way in the not-too-distant future. When we did our live stream last year, I think it was
08:51last year, it might even have been the year before that, talking about the lack of an eastern relief
08:55road. We talked about the fact that this road, which runs all the way to the River Parrot, would
09:03be the most direct way of reaching Squibbers Way, if there was a way that you could widen it through
09:08compulsory purchase orders, maybe building another couple of bridges. But just to reiterate, at the
09:14moment there is no funding for that, and I don't know honestly what the landowners would feel if
09:21they were asked to move aside and demolish all those buildings. There's also of course the Dunway
09:28Ponds to consider, which we're very close to now, and in case you need any further reminding, because
09:33we are very close to the Somerset Levels, a lot of this area is quite low-lying, so drainage and
09:39flooding are issues that are going to have to be taken very seriously as this development comes
09:44on stream, so to speak. If you've only just joined me this morning, it's Daniel Mumby, your local
09:52Democracy Reporter. We're on the eastern edge of Bridgewater, we're talking about the Follett's
09:57Farm development site, where Hannock Homes and its partners have got permission to build 530 new
10:05houses. That permission has been multiple years in the making, we had a vote by councillors to
10:11approve it back in February 2023, and it was only just before Christmas, so nearly two years after
10:17that, that all the legal agreements have been signed off, enabling that development to officially
10:24start. Now, there is a caveat of course with that, there are caveats with everything to do with
10:29planning decisions, and anything to do with local government in fact. It's one of the things that
10:33makes this job so fiddly and endlessly interesting. There are caveats insofar as, before you can start
10:41construction of any of the new houses, the developer will have to meet certain conditions
10:46in terms of providing detailed designs of where the homes are going to go, how big they're going
10:52to be, what they're going to look like, as well as the layout of the roads, ensuring that the
10:58pavements meet all kinds of government criteria in terms of their location and their width and
11:03the materials used. A lot of it is stuff that fascinates civil engineers, but which we
11:09ordinary laymen and laywomen, laypeople I suppose would be the best politically correct way of putting it,
11:14don't give a second thought to, and ensuring that all those hoops are jumped through will take some
11:18time. But what it does mean on a practical level, is that in the absence of an eastern relief road
11:26being built, linking Dunwear Lane to Squibbers Way, car-free provision, that is looking at walking,
11:34cycling and other forms of active travel, takes much more of a central role. And the Bridgewater
11:42Area Cycling Campaign have been very actively involved in the conversations surrounding
11:50linking this site properly to the town centre. We interviewed Colin Gummer of course,
11:58I think it was around Christmas 2023, talking about the A372 itself and how difficult it can be
12:06to walk or cycle safely along there, with the narrow pavements, the limited infrastructure near
12:13the railway station. Of course that area is a hive of activity at the moment, with the Celebration
12:18Mile being delivered, though the actual section near the railway station along St John's Street
12:24is as yet unfunded. And we can point you to articles along those lines if you want more
12:29information about that. As you can probably hear, we're just passing under the M5. We are
12:36between the two Bridgewater Junctions here, 23 in that direction and 24 down that way.
12:44And again, very limited pavements, if any, in this area. Lots of little farms dotted around.
12:52And if you were feeling brave enough, you could follow this road all the way out
12:57to Western Zoyland, Middle Zoy and Otherey, though it's not the most direct route.
13:03Anyway, to get back on track, the Bridgewater Area Cycling Campaign were involved very closely
13:08in negotiations between Somerset Council and the developers of the Follett Farm site,
13:15looking at ways to secure walking and cycling links that would link the new development to
13:22existing routes into the town centre, one of which we're going to be exploring at the moment. We've
13:28already explored a short section of the, it's not quite a towpath because it's not along the canal,
13:33but the footpath along the River Parrot that will lead you into the town centre. And we're
13:40going to look at another little section in a minute. But essentially, the back volunteers,
13:47including Mr Gummer, have managed to secure certain conditions to ensure that before a single
13:54pile is driven into the ground or a single brick on the first houses are laid,
13:58the designs of those new walking and cycling links linking Follett's farmhouses to Strawberry
14:05Grange, to the A372, and these links down this way, as I suppose it's a quiet rural road, though
14:13there are plenty of houses dotted around, those all have to be in place and signed off by the
14:18local authority before building can begin. And funnily enough, the Bridgewater Area Cycling
14:25Campaign posted a statement on their official website a few days ago, confirming the fact and
14:30welcoming it. Here's what they had to say. The plans for Follett's farm include 530 homes and
14:38some potentially exciting active travel infrastructure. We're really pleased that
14:42Somerset Council is taking active travel seriously as they consider the future of our town and its
14:47inhabitants and how they will get about. They then go on to list the three main planning conditions
14:55that reflect that, including a commission that the developers will secure the designs for walking
15:06and cycling routes as part of any reserved matters application for the site. Reserved matters
15:10essentially means the developer has got outline permission for the site showing what the access
15:15will look like and then they put forward another set of plans showing the design and layout of the
15:19houses and all the other infrastructure. So that's all good news. Now we have come to the
15:25bottom of Dunwear Lane and you can see, if the sun doesn't blind you too much, we are very close now
15:31to the River Parrot onto National Cycle Network Route 3 and 33 as well and what we're going to do
15:40is we're going to follow this section all the way back up to Plum Lane and do a nice little loop
15:47pointing out the links into the town centre as we go. It means going back under the motorway
15:54but hopefully this will give you an idea if you end up living in one of the Follett's farm houses
16:00about the links that are currently available and maybe inspire you to push your local councillor
16:06and your planning and highway officers for any improvements that you think are necessary.
16:11This section of the path near the Parrot
16:15is quite a long way back from the river. You've got the concrete barrier here along with these reeds.
16:21I can't tell how high the river is at the moment
16:25but I don't think there's much chance of me falling in. There's very little breeze today.
16:32So this section, if you follow it all the way, will take you into the town centre.
16:38It will also give you the option to link up with the towpath that runs along the
16:42Bridgewater and Taunton Canal of which the key Albert Street to West Street cutting
16:49finally reopened just before Christmas so you can now walk the whole length of the canal
16:54without obstruction. Isn't that wonderful?
16:59It is bitterly cold this morning. My right hand is starting to form a bit of a frozen claw. It's
17:06turning slightly pink but rest assured the rest of me is in good nick so we will push on.
17:13If you've only just joined me, it's Daniel Mumby, your local democracy reporter. I'm
17:19currently under the M5 on the eastern edge of Bridgewater. We are right by the River Parrot.
17:26We're talking about the Follett's Farm housing development of 530 new homes which have just
17:33had their legal agreement signed between the developers and Somerset Council
17:38meaning that work on that can start within the coming months and we've been doing a little loop
17:44at the bottom of Dunware Lane now along the river and we'll be cutting back up Plum Lane in a second
17:51just to give you an idea of the connections currently available and how these could be
17:56enhanced in future. I should say that we did ask Somerset Council for a statement
18:01about when a reserve matters application for Follett's Farm might come forward or for specific
18:09schemes that they had identified for walking and cycling which would secure funding. Unfortunately
18:16they didn't respond at the time of this broadcast but we will include them in the resulting article
18:21so it may take a few days for that to arrive. One particular detail that we wanted to thrash out
18:26with them is when the outline plans were approved by councillors for Follett's Farm there was an
18:34expectation at least as far as I recall it that the developers would contribute some money towards
18:40the cost of delivering the new roundabout on the A372 which now of course has been completely
18:46finished. So what we're trying to pin down is does that money automatically disappear? Does it not
18:53have to be paid by the developers? You know in other words countryside partnerships stump up for
18:59the whole cost of the roundabout themselves as they ended up doing or can that money be recycled
19:06into other road improvements maybe new walking and cycle links or something else entirely? Let me know
19:13in the comments what you would like to see done with that money. We don't know how much we have
19:15to play with. Could be five figures, could be six, might even be higher than that but if there was
19:21some money floating around which bits of Bridgewater's road network would you use to improve?
19:29So we are now quite high up above the river. You can just hear the M5 slowly filtering into the
19:37background and it's it's one of those parts of the edge of Bridgewater, Bridgewater without
19:43technically because we're still in that parish, where it feels very semi-rural. Obviously you've
19:49got the motorway, you've got industry sort of dotted around but equally you could find yourself,
19:58it feels like sort of walking on one of those smaller villages on the levels further out like
20:03Moorland or sort of the outskirts of Langport area. Fortunately the further we get away from
20:11the motorway the more peaceful it is so we can actually admire our surroundings and I'm glad
20:16we picked this on a day where okay it's bitterly cold but at least we don't have to deal with snow
20:20and ice because I do not fancy my chances of mixing, of getting through this surface on train
20:27with trainers on and not coming out with a broken ankle or something else farther more severe.
20:36As you can see we are just coming up now to a fence section where bikes can carry on through
20:45into the town centre. We'll explore that in a little bit more detail when we get closer
20:49but what we're going to do is cut down to the right and head back onto Plum Lane
20:54and eventually end up back near Follett's Farm itself and that's where we will leave things for today.
21:04I think it is fair to say that it's very important for the alternative forms of transport that have
21:11been discussed by BAC to come forward as soon as they can within the development
21:16because otherwise you will end up with large numbers of cars relying on the A372 particularly
21:23if they build from north to south and that will create huge traffic problems on Bridgewater's
21:30eastern entrance which is already very congested. So if you were exploring this area and you wanted
21:37to get up to the town centre the easiest way is to carry on through the river go under that bridge
21:43there through the tunnel. You have to step off your bicycle because the tunnel is very very low
21:48but it is navigable and we've seen plenty of people enjoying it with their dogs including
21:53that gentleman. But we for the time being are going to duck back in away from the river
22:00and head up one of the arms of Plum Lane near the Dunwear Ponds to journey's end.
22:08Of course these developments on the eastern edge of Bridgewater are by no means the only
22:15major series of house building that's going on in the town. At the western edge you have
22:21the Centenary Heights site off the A39 Quantock Road where 675 homes are being delivered with
22:29Persimmon planning a further 352 immediately to the south of that. Those two sites will be
22:37connected by a signal control crossroads which is being built at the moment and we will be keeping
22:43a very close eye on that over the coming months and years as those new homes and infrastructure
22:48comes forward. In addition to that there is the Bridgewater Gateway site near junction 24 of the M5
22:58and that is bringing forward 511 new houses. You might have seen the live stream that we did
23:04in November last year around the time of the Bridgewater Carnival talking about
23:10the challenges of linking that site to the local schools and facilities using routes through the
23:18Woolstock and Stockmore Country Park and I dare say as we pass the Dunwear Ponds on our right
23:25there would be some appetite among local residents for a new green lung at the southern edge of the
23:32town complementing the ponds to serve as some kind of country park for the residents of East
23:39Bridgewater once those new houses are delivered. There will be some green space within the Bower
23:44Lane allocation near the primary school and we understand that new sports pitches are going to
23:50be included as part of that development but let me know in the comments if a new Bridgewater Country
23:57Park or an East Bridgewater Country Park, whatever you want to call it, is something that you would
24:03support. If so we can put that to Somerset Council and see if there's any scope for it happening.
24:10So now we're just going to carry on up Plum Lane. We've made it through the Potholey section and I've
24:16managed to endure that without getting the water through my trainers and saturating my socks which
24:22is always a good thing. If that happened in this weather I wouldn't put it past me having
24:26icicles in my shoes by the time we finish. Although it's not cloudy overhead and therefore
24:32we're not expecting any more snow it is still bitterly cold. We seem to alternate in Somerset
24:39between having very cold winters and very wet winters and this feels like a very cold one.
24:46So we've only got a short distance left to go before we end up back on
24:51Dunway Lane itself and we'll head a little further up the road
24:56just to the edge of the housing link itself and that's where we will wrap things up.
25:04And like I said we will post links in the comments section to all of our previous reporting
25:11on the Follett's Farm development including the original planning decision back in February 2023
25:19and the coverage about the lack of a relief road which we published in October the same year.
25:26We are always interested when we do these live streams for any ideas of areas you feel that we
25:33don't cover enough, any particular sites that you would like us to explore. One of the things that
25:39we're looking to do in the spring as the consultation starts on the new Somerset wide local plan
25:46is doing live streams traveling between all the different development sites across numerous
25:53different towns and villages. If you would like to nominate your town for one of those streams
25:58do get in touch. Drop me something in the comments or you can find me on Facebook. LVR Somerset is my
26:06page. You can just drop me a message through that or leave a comment on one of my stories
26:09and I'll get back to you. But we've made it to the bottom of Dunway Lane again or at least
26:15to the bottom of the Follett's Farm site. I'm just going to stand on top of this verge
26:19on this frozen ground peering over this drainage ditch. The road is starting to get a little busier
26:24with traffic and dog walkers so I'm not going to venture any further up but I hope that has been
26:29informative to you. Thank you very much for your company today. If you missed any part of this live
26:34stream it will be available indefinitely on our Facebook page once we finish rolling. I'll be
26:39back for another live stream next Saturday. At the moment it looks like we'll be in Langport
26:43talking about the new doctor's surgery there but keep an eye out on my social media
26:47because that is subject to change. In the meantime this is Daniel Mumby your local democracy reporter
26:52wishing you a very peaceful weekend and I'm off to get a hot drink to warm my hands up. Bye for now.