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00:00Okay, well, David, you've waited 22 years, I think, for this moment, so can you dig the first sod?
00:08Well, I was rather troubled when Nick asked me to dig the first sod.
00:14I thought, you know, well, it's either royalty or the aristocracy, or somebody who's so old and ancient,
00:20that's all they can manage, is to dig one sod and then sod off.
00:26I mean, the word has unfortunate connotations from Solomon Gomorrah, doesn't it?
00:32You know, there's sod's law.
00:35But I'd like to establish a new law called King's law, or King's Academy law,
00:40because we've had such terrific help on this.
00:43And instead of sod's law, which is if anything can go wrong, it will go wrong,
00:48King's Academy law is if something's going to go right, it will go right.
00:52So, you know, we've just especially acknowledged everything we've had,
00:58you know, with cooperation from King's on this.
01:01Because for a long, long time, with the local branch of the Strawberry Line,
01:06the experts shedded it, which I've been most closely involved with,
01:09we've repeatedly tried to get a route through in this direction,
01:14and it's been repeatedly blocked by one thing or another.
01:18So it's a terrific day to see you this.
01:21Right?
01:22Absolutely.
01:23That's it?
01:24Right.
01:25The first half of the board would make them less than the end,
01:29and you're you rocking the field.
01:33While you're doing that, Dave,
01:34can I just say that we've had tremendous conversation from the School,
01:37but also from the Academy Trust and the diocese.
01:40All three have had to be involved in that.
01:42And also, our neighbours we've taken, as you'll see later,
01:45a little portion of land just to make sure we didn't cut off the edge of the rugby pitch.
01:49rugby pitch and they've been really helpful as well. So this is one of those three-way
01:56collaborations between Strawberry Line Society, Greenways and Cycle Routes and Somerset Council.
02:05We've worked really well together in other parts of Somerset and this is, we hope, will be the
02:13first of further collaborations in the Cheddar area. Well, that's not bad, isn't it?
02:19That's not bad.
02:29Hi David. This is a very small thank you from Strawberry Line for your amazing dedication over all those years,
02:39all those dry years and now it's coming through it and finally. So thank you so much for all your help.
02:45Well, thank you and thank you to everybody here. It's always been a team effort, you know, it's not just
02:51you know what I've put into it, it's always been somebody else helping, so thank you very much.
02:59Yep, let's carry on. We'll let these fantastic volunteers crack on with this amazing work and
03:09Mick and I are going to have a little chat. If you've only just joined us here on Somerset Live,
03:13it's Daniel Mumby here, your local democracy reporter, and we are at the start of work on the newest part
03:19of the long running Strawberry Line route, which will eventually run all the way from Yatan to Shepton Mallet via Cheddar.
03:25Mick Fletcher, let's let's walk and talk along where the new path is going to go.
03:29Right, well, as you can see here, it's a lovely path. The school and the trust have been very generous,
03:35they haven't restricted us to a minimum five metres that we would be asking for, but it runs through the trees.
03:43There's an area here where people might want to pause and sit. And of course, there's that fantastic view across the school playing team.
03:51Yeah, we couldn't have picked a better day for the commencement of this, could we?
03:55No, we couldn't. I mean, in two senses. One, it's lovely to work in this weather, but also, we had to get all the material here across the school sports picture,
04:04and we didn't want to leave wheel ruts and marbles there to spoil it, particularly after they've been so gaffled.
04:14I can't thank them enough, it's been a pleasure to work with them.
04:18So just to clarify to people what's happening both today and over the rest of the Easter holidays,
04:23you're putting in fence posts along this part of the sports field perimeter,
04:27but just talk us through why these are going up and why you're doing this now rather than later in the year.
04:33We're doing this over the Easter holidays. We've got a two-week window, which we think will be enough,
04:38and if the weather holds out, it certainly will be enough. And having done this, we'll have effectively marked off the working area,
04:45blocked off the working area of the school, so there'll be no further worries about safeguarding issues.
04:50We'll be able to work, you know, times to suit us, rather than worrying about having workmen on site doing the school day.
05:00As you can see, a nice wide curve here, but looking ahead, you'll find the sports pitches come up very close to the boundary,
05:11and this is where the cooperation of our neighbours has been so important, so valuable to us,
05:16because from about this point here, the path will be off the school land and go through the fence into just a small section of neighbouring landholding.
05:32And this is on a permissive basis rather than you purchasing the land from underneath them?
05:36It's a lease. It's a lease, a 50-year lease, so they effectively can't do anything with it, but it remains their property in the fullness of time.
05:50If the path became irrelevant, then it will revert.
05:54Okay.
05:55If you look over the fence now at this point, you can see we planted 450 trees.
06:01Right, we only just got them in time in the planting season.
06:04Wonderful.
06:05But that will be, that's the beginnings of a hedge.
06:08We'll provide a fence on their side of it, sorry, on this side of the hedge, but a fence that secures their boundary.
06:17Yeah.
06:18So that people coming along the path can't just wander or easily get into their farmed area.
06:26Yeah.
06:27Let's just go back a little bit to the point you were making about safeguarding,
06:30and one of the reasons of having to point the camera in this direction is,
06:33even though this is the Easter holidays, there are lots of young children playing football on the pitches next to us,
06:38and for obvious reasons, we're not going to be filming them.
06:40But the intention with this section is that people who live in and around Cheddar can access these facilities,
06:47but without endangering the wellbeing of the children who actually come here every day.
06:50That's right. Absolutely. Absolutely.
06:52And the building work can carry on an interruption.
06:55But if you just turn around, Daniel, and look back now, what you can see over there, right, is the Dracock Park estate.
07:02And at the moment, if you want to get the Dracock Park estate into the leisure centre,
07:08then you've got a circuitous route that takes you round and into the centre of Cheddar.
07:15Yeah?
07:16Yeah, just pointing above their head so they're not on shot.
07:18Okay?
07:19Yep.
07:20And then if you were going to do that route, you'd probably get in your car and drive it,
07:23and add to congestion and parking problems.
07:25Whereas now, when this is in place, they'll be able to put their children on a bicycle,
07:31they can just cycle the shortcuts that's here and access without adding to congestion,
07:36without the risk of going through the... It's a village centre, isn't it?
07:42Yes. It always confuses me. Cheddar is the much larger segment, but Axbridge is the one that's actually a town, legally speaking.
07:48Yes.
07:49So, we're getting these fences in place over the Easter holidays, all being well,
07:53and if you have weather like this, I'm sure you'll manage it.
07:55Assuming you get good weather in the spring and the summer, when are you targeting this path actually being open and finished?
08:01Right. Well, the key thing is getting approval from the Environment Agency for our plans to build a bridge over the river.
08:08And that bridge, the idea is it will arrive almost in kit form and be assembled,
08:17which is something that Greenways have done before,
08:19and we're confident that Greenways engineers can lead a volunteer group to do it.
08:24It won't be quite as big as the bridge that was put in at Shepton, but on the other hand,
08:28it will be more volunteer effort to do it, because at Shepton, as you know,
08:32that wonderful crane came and the thing floated in effortlessly.
08:36Yeah. It was absolutely wonderful to see that in action.
08:38Yeah. But here it will be a rather more participative project.
08:43So, we're talking late summer, probably. Fantastic.
08:48Given the time that the Environment Agency needs to do its planning,
08:53and the order time, I think, is something like 16 weeks on the bridge.
08:59And we can't specify exactly how big it is until the Environment Agency tells us exactly how they want to evolve.
09:08I see.
09:09Now, from here, that bund there will be reshaped,
09:14so the path begins to rise up gradually on the left-hand side,
09:19but it will remain there on the right, forming a barrier,
09:24and we maybe increase that sitting-out area outside the Leisure Centre,
09:29so it'll be a bit of an extra meaning of the Leisure Centre.
09:33Excellent. Well, I think we are going to try and get a little bit closer,
09:35just so we can see where the path will run up down the side of the Leisure Centre.
09:39Yeah.
09:40And just to say that the funding for this section,
09:43is this coming from the legacy grants from Mendip District Council,
09:46or is it a combination of other sources as well?
09:48I think it's probably amended legacy funding, although the funding has always been a bit of a mystery to me.
09:55There are so many different pots that one can look into.
10:00Probably something like the Shared Prosperity Fund might have a role to play in it,
10:05and certainly funding from Active Travel England.
10:09Excellent.
10:10To play a path.
10:11Well, yeah, let's walk up here and we'll just show you that we don't intend to have gradients like this on the path.
10:16Yes, because 1 in 20 is the steepest you're allowed for mobility scooters.
10:21That's right.
10:22I'm just going to try and get up.
10:23I am using a walking stick today because of a foot injury,
10:25but rest assured Mick is looking after me.
10:28And so the path will be lower.
10:32You can see where the fence goes here.
10:35So the path will be a slope from here.
10:38So the path will be at about this point, but increasingly sunken down.
10:43And it will rise up gradually.
10:46So that yes, mobility scooters, kids on bikes,
10:53people pushing trams, don't have too onerous a path to get up to the right level.
11:00I have an image in my mind of someone playing rugby or football on the pitch behind us
11:04and just seeing this row of helmets moving just above the eye line.
11:08It could be quite unreal, but we're going to do some tasks with you as well.
11:13Potentially, we can make this a better immunity area for the leisure centre.
11:19Perhaps extend that fence outwards if we can slightly remodel the buns
11:24so that they gain something out of it as well.
11:27But this is a win-win.
11:29It's a win-win because the leisure centre has a problem with parking.
11:33If you've been here when they're busy, they're very busy.
11:36So they'll achieve, they'll gain something from it.
11:39The school will win because pupils can walk or cycle more easily to school.
11:44And of course, we win with the Strawberry Line being able to have a better route through Cheddar.
11:49Cheddar wins because it reduces the amount of traffic in the village centre.
11:55Fantastic.
11:57Just finally, and before I let you get back to the construction efforts,
12:00if people are watching this and think,
12:02I really want to get involved either in the actual construction of it or maybe fundraising,
12:06what's the best way for them to get in touch with you?
12:08If you have a look on the website, SLS, the Strawberry Line Society,
12:12look at our website.
12:13There's a section on there which talks about live projects
12:16and that will give you information on how to participate in this particular project over Easter
12:21or if you're interested later in the year when we do other tasks like the bridge.
12:27I'm guessing next winter we'll be probably involved in some planting activity.
12:31So there will be ways for everybody to get involved.
12:34Nick Fletcher from the Strawberry Line Society, thank you so much for joining us.
12:37And if you've missed any part of this live stream,
12:39it will be available on Facebook for the next 30 days so you can watch it back at your leisure.
12:43We can't go any closer to the leisure centre because there are people using it.
12:46There's the swimming pool just behind us.
12:48But we look forward to coming back in the late summer,
12:50maybe the early autumn if we get some rain and we'll be walking the whole section of this,
12:55maybe even going up as far as Station Road.
12:57But in the meantime, from Cheddar, thank you so much again to Mick Fletcher
13:02and thank you very much for joining us today.
13:04Bye for now.
13:05Bye.