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00:00Good morning people of Somerset it's Daniel Mumby your local democracy
00:05reporter here for a special Bank Holiday Monday stream and I've brought a friend
00:09along with me could you please introduce yourself to our wonderful readers.
00:11Hi I'm Liz Brown, I was born and brought up in the area and I've just come along this morning for a pleasant walk on East Bridgewater where I live.
00:21Excellent so between now and the next 30 minutes or so depending on how briskly we
00:25can walk and we're going to make a start on that right now Liz and I are
00:29going to be walking all the way along the East Bridgewater housing allocation here
00:33we started on the roundabout with the A39 Bath Road and we're going to be heading
00:38all the way past the community hospital down past the new Poulton Bower Special School
00:43and then each of the allocated sites we will pass which together will be
00:48delivering the best part of 1600 new homes for Bridgewater over the next few years
00:53of which 260 are currently under construction but we'll get to that site
00:57a little bit later so Liz first of all and we're going to have to speak quite
01:01loudly because of the traffic noise it's relatively quiet at the moment on a bank
01:04holiday but yes so just talk about how long you've lived in the area and how long
01:11these sites have been a concern for you and your neighbours
01:14well i've i've lived in on the bridge estate which is just
01:18to the side of the west of the road we've gone off since 1984 and we've always loved the green gap
01:28between um somewhere on Bower Lake and the motorway it really is the last bit of green
01:33noise that we've got on the green lung and i really became aware of the extent of the
01:39development that was proposed when when a letter was talking about around the time of covid in 2020 which
01:47sort of said that 500 houses 500 odd houses were proposed or done where they were known
01:54and at that time but then became a bit more active in trying to find out a bit more
01:59and also racing away within the community of what was happening because i think a lot of people at that
02:04stage didn't really know the extent of the impact that would occur and uh so yes since then i've
02:12sort of become a bit more active in the community making the fairness um encouraging people to come to
02:19meetings so that they're they have a voice voice yeah we're just passing the bridgewater community
02:27hospital behind us which has the town's minor injuries unit in it and one of the big issues about
02:33all of these new homes coming on stream is the state of bridgewater's local health services
02:39obviously we've got some good news in that we've got the the new health and social care academy
02:43opening up in the town center but you've spoken in public before about the fact that
02:48a lot of the new homes we built without money coming into the nhs from those homes can you talk
02:53about that a bit please
03:04for one and the impacts of their developments will have huge implications for primary care
03:10particularly a lot of gp surgeries are already struggling with them close to a victoria park
03:16medical center and this part of bridgewater alone generating 3 000 odd extra patients
03:24in addition to all the other ones around the sides of the town when there's no actual even a building
03:29um a new primary care facility gp surgery um proposed let alone staffed it does seem crazy to me and a lot of
03:39people around me um are waiting sort of two three months just a routine appointment and surgeries have
03:46come out quite publicly saying how they're struggling but at the same time you know we're having this
03:52statement being made yeah we should point out um we did put these concerns to the somerset integrated
04:07care board um they have not disclosed how they precisely calculate contributions from housing
04:13developments like this but they would state that the money that they do get is strictly for capital
04:18spending ie building new doctor surgeries rather than the day-to-day cost of running doctors and
04:23nurses um something just needs to be borne in mind and we will include that full statement in the
04:28follow-up article to this which will be coming out on tuesday or wednesday so we're just coming along
04:34bower lane now we've passed the community hospital and the polton bower special school behind us
04:39obviously still closed for the holidays so we're not at risk of disturbing anybody and we're coming
04:45onto the edge now of the first of the major housing sites within the east broadwater allocation
04:52which was set aside in the sedgemoor local plan many years ago and the site that we're coming to
04:59firstly is is the largest of the three allocations we're talking up to 750 homes plus another primary
05:06school and uh we were present at a rather heated meeting about a month ago just just on the other side of
05:12the motorway where bridgewater without parish council had a briefing from the developers and things
05:18got rather well opinionated shall we say naturally because people are going to be impacted i mean
05:26the traffic is a big issue in bridgewater as we all know um but no new roads plans um i know the developers
05:33said generally contribute towards um some improvements in junctions in the town um but it doesn't really
05:41help this kind of town very much the access into bridgewater is via two victorian narrow railway bridges
05:48um and when the motorway is congested or closed indeed in the summer um especially you know the town is
05:56completely gridlock so we're just very concerned about the impact on traffic um there has been one of
06:04the proposals is that this lane is going to be closed to traffic at some point um which other people
06:11supported i mean you're never going to please everybody some people said well you know i don't
06:16want it to be closed i want it to be upgraded but it is a narrow winding lane that was probably never
06:22designed for traffic it's probably the original carriageway for one from one side one main road to
06:27another the other two main roads being um joining the two being eastern avenue which is obviously
06:34residential as well and parkway which is also residential but they're a lot straighter um but
06:40obviously if they close this lane there's going to be a lot of impacts on the traffic
06:44yeah we're just having to occasionally step in you can see just from here how narrow bower lane is
06:57and uh you can understand entirely why many people would want this closed off and turned into a quiet
07:03way for walkers and cyclists so if occasionally we have to step in it's only because we don't want
07:08to get run over live on facebook not sure that's what people want to see on their bank holiday
07:14um if you have any questions or comments whilst we're going on thank you very much for everyone
07:17who's joined us so far here on somerset live um it's daniel mumby here your local democracy reporter
07:22liz brown and myself are walking alongside the sites of potentially up to 1600 new homes
07:29on the eastern edge of bridgewater you can just hear the rumble of the m5 in the background on this
07:34relatively calm bank holiday monday morning but if you do have any comments please pop them in the
07:39comment section and i'll get to as many of your questions as possible um either live or just after
07:44this video is finished so let's just let's just go back to the the kind of green wedge that you were
07:51talking about early on because unless we have the sound of the motorway in the background you can just
07:56sort of see in that area sort of the cars and lorries rumbling past but just talk about your experience
08:02of living in this area and how important a green lung like this is to have on your doorstep well of
08:08course it is a buffer between um the residential areas current residential areas and the motorway
08:14but more than that it's aesthetically a barrier between almost the modern world
08:21and the motorway you know the modern world and us as well and it's the richness of the hedgerows here
08:27the semi-infeld grassland is so important for conservation i'm also an ecologist and i'm
08:35i'm very concerned about the level of hedgerow removal which is directly contributing to
08:40the depletion of nature and and worldwide biodiversity in our country and i think despite
08:48assurances from developers when you actually see development site a lot of hedgerows are removed and
08:54new planting to replace it doesn't really completely replace um what is existing in terms of carbon capture
09:05in terms of biodiversity species richness i think that the people's trust of endangered species did a
09:14survey of an 85 meter length of hedgerow and found over 2000 different species so it just shows you how
09:23important yeah yeah i just want to touch on something that martin roberts has popped in the comments
09:41thank you very much indeed he's worried about um what will happen to bridgewater's housing market after
09:47all of this building has been completed and what happens after the hinky point c construction happens
09:53because of course we've got a large number of people moving into bridgewater and the surrounding
09:57villages to work on that massive construction site we've got the bathroad campus just about a mile away
10:03from us are you worried that you know this all gets built up in a few years and then the bottom
10:09falls out of the housing market and no you can't just turn it back into fields again there are issues
10:14concerning that the housing market is apparently already slowing down and the types of houses that
10:21are being built largely we only serve in with quite cross-country migration and not necessarily going
10:29to help people struggling to get to the housing ladder in bridgewater to people that are already on
10:35waiting list these are largely still going to be inaccessible for them um i mean we wait to see
10:42what's going to be um when all the viability assessments are done what the percentage of
10:52affordable so-called affordable housing will actually end up being because our experience across the other
10:59side of the a370 is that that has been um severely reduced um compared to what is actually council policy
11:07the council's own policy so um yes i am concerned about it obviously construction phase for any
11:15major infrastructure project like looking point demands massive massively on accommodation but a lot
11:21of those workers just moving job to job their contractors are sometimes only here from monday to friday
11:27and then they're moving on to the next big construction project and i believe for example the gravity site is
11:32having its own development yes we have uh as yet unconfirmed reports that uh jaguar land rover will be
11:39investing in the site and that there will be an element of housing as part of that development but uh
11:46it's not our job to speculate so let's uh let's leave that one where it lies i mean sooner or later
11:51that site will become developed and we know that there is the the poldern orchards development that's
11:57just been approved in puritan which is just a stone's throw from the gravity site so it isn't just
12:02bridge water itself that's having to to grow and accommodate demand um we'll come on to the spine
12:08road in just a second but i suppose we should also point out that a lot of the land that we are
12:12walking past at the moment is actually in county council ownership
12:17um
12:22a great loss to people to see these lovely walls
12:52Yeah, we should point out just for people worried about any conflict of interest, even though Somerset Council owns the land, their land ownership and property department is a separate legal entity from their planning department in the same way as if you've been following our coverage of the Saxonvale saga in Froome.
13:16The local authority there owns the land, but it still has to act independently as planning authority. So the houses on here are not a done deal, but because it's allocated in local plans and because construction further down this road has already started, there is an air of inevitability about it, isn't there?
13:35Yeah, and it means that the local plan was included in the current adopted local plan, which runs, the current one runs for 2032.
13:43But I think one of the problems local people have had is that the numbers, the combined numbers between Strawberry Grange, Follett's Farm and the Bower Development equates to a 30% uplift.
13:57So it's 30% more houses that were actually quoted as being the figure in the local plan. We're told that the 1200 was not a maximum, but a lot of the consultation was done on that figure.
14:08So it's quite a high cap, really, and the impacts are in parallel to that high cap.
14:14Yeah, it does seem to be a bit of a loophole or a grey area in the local plan system where housing targets are set as a minimum and any windfall that comes in, whether it's from squeezing additional homes into a big area like this or just building up, say, a 10 home or 20 home site here and there, is kind of waved through without a second thought because it just helps to hit the target from central government.
14:38Right. If you've only just joined us on the stream, thank you very much for all your company so far.
14:44Thank you for choosing to tune in to Somerset Live on the start of the last bank holiday before the summer.
14:50I'm Daniel Mumby, your local democracy reporter. I'm with Liz Brown, a concerned Bridgewater resident.
14:55We're walking along Bower Lane on the eastern edge of Bridgewater between the existing homes on our right and the M5 on our left.
15:02We're talking about three major housing developments which could eventually deliver up to 1,600 homes in this neck of the woods, although that phrase maybe seems a little loaded because there won't be woods for much longer if certain people get their way.
15:16We're just passing the popular Bower Inn on our left. I'm just going to have to quickly pull in because there's a car behind me.
15:24And again, I'm sure that you don't want me getting run over live on camera. That will be a horrible way to spend your long weekend.
15:30We should point out as well, with the Bower Farm development of 750 homes, this land near us is going to be roughly where the new primary school is going to be built.
15:44Yes, it's not exactly next door, so we won't need to worry about children sneaking off for a quick one at lunchtime.
15:51But this area here is going to be the sort of Education and Employment Centre, and it does mean if you use the Bower Inn, you'll lose some of the views from the Beer Garden area, which let us know in the comments if you aren't happy about that.
16:06I believe the Bower Inn is going to get a new access from the Spy Road.
16:11OK. Let's talk about that then, because we've been walking along Bower Inn now for quite a while, and we've had to pull in a lot for traffic coming in both directions.
16:20But if the developers get their way, this will not be the primary route through the site.
16:27This will be either cut off entirely, or it will be maintained for local residents as a quiet route for walkers and cyclists with local access for cars.
16:35And instead, a new spine road will be created, which will link from the Bath Road roundabout, where we started our journey, to a brand new roundabout, which is going to be built on the A372 Western Zoyland Road.
16:51And that will link into both the developments along this stretch of Bower Lane and the Folletts Farm site, which we'll be ending our journey at today in about 15 to 20 minutes.
17:01So please stick around for that.
17:02We are moving towards the Strawberry Grange site, where the first stage of the Spine Road is currently being constructed, although the roundabout hasn't yet started.
17:14And I'm sure that's a cause of frustration for a lot of local people.
17:16Yeah, we still don't know really what's happening.
17:19This summer game, there's been some land issues, land ownership issues, which have been started in construction, which was due to start in January.
17:29But there's still some sort of legal wrangling, I believe, as the bits of ownership of the roads over means or something.
17:39But I'm not sure of the details.
17:41One of the comments that we got when we reported on the status of the roundabout, a couple of people who commented on our Facebook page seem quite relieved because of all the roadworks that they're having to contend with on Broadway and other parts of the town centre.
17:57Do you think that they have a point with that?
17:59That it's better to just wait for a while and then get it done later in the year?
18:02Well, yes, indeed. At the moment, they seem to be doing development and digging up the roads everywhere and temporary traffic lights into the town and Broadway.
18:12So in a funny sort of way, I suppose there is some fortuity in the fact that it has been denied.
18:18I think it was just the fact that one of the conditions that the school would be raised to benefit to proceed was that they would start construction with the roundabout.
18:28But it hasn't happened yet, which is a decent land tenure problem.
18:35But first of all, they wanted to put in a proposal that it would be they should start construction once the first house was sold.
18:46Then that's the storm, I believe.
18:48Yes.
18:50We'll wait and see, really. Wait and see.
18:52Obviously, there's going to be so much traffic generated.
18:54There needs to be so kind of construction with the bottom here because it's going to be chaotic whatever it is.
19:04Yes, it's touch and go with just the two of us walking along here.
19:07So never mind when hundreds of thousands of people are living here.
19:11And in advance to Eddie Van Hale, the developer of this part, they are trying to consult with a lot of people asking what the best way forward is for them.
19:21Yes.
19:21Because it's been a long time, an excellent way to have them.
19:26We'll have been touched with them.
19:28But because of the mountain drop or the cyclist horse riders that use this layer for leisure,
19:35it does seem a natural thing to actually close up the traffic and the actual new development.
19:42But of course, there are hazards with that as well for pushing all the additional traffic up through the spine road as well.
19:49Yeah.
19:50I don't know.
19:51The trouble is, when you're building houses, you have to accept that the people that move into houses have their medical needs, their schooling needs, and their cars are over.
20:01And so, you know, there's in two and three, sometimes four-car households if you've got a house with multiple occupants in.
20:09And so, all that really needs to be taxed in.
20:11And we're not sure it has been.
20:13Yeah.
20:13Because I think it's worth pointing out, you know, there's an acceptance on your part and your neighbour's part that some houses will eventually have to come here.
20:23You're not being nimbyist.
20:25You're just concerned that the infrastructure isn't in place for this amount of houses to cope.
20:30Absolutely, and that has been, in terms of the politics form as well, in terms of the whole allocation, I think one of the problems has been that each development has been looked at in isolation.
20:43Peacemeal, yeah.
20:44Yeah, peacemeal.
20:45Instead of actually, as a whole, the impacts of all the development of the world allocation.
20:50So, I think that would be one of the things I would say has been the biggest issue.
20:55I mean, we're surrounded, apart from motorway traffic, we're surrounded by birdsong.
21:00And I'm just really concerned about biodiversity loss, most of all, really, personally.
21:06As we're seeing in a moment, there's not much network to develop a start base, but they'll get the attention.
21:15Yeah, we will be coming up to the Strawberry Grange development in just a few minutes, just a little bit further to wend our way down by the lane.
21:23Also, you see how the road is so narrow and people are actually coming off the side now because they're trying to sort of get round.
21:31And also, you've got all the construction traffic coming here.
21:33Yes.
21:34Which has caused a huge amount of drop-off of the side of the road in a row.
21:39Yeah, we had some Uncaphone reports that the road had started to collapse in places with the weight of the lorries.
21:44But, yeah, we don't have confirmation of that, but if we can secure it, we will include that in our article.
21:52I'm keeping it on the surface for you.
21:54Yeah, it is a little hairy on here.
21:56It's a quiet bank holiday Monday and it's a little cooler than it was yesterday.
22:00We suspect most people are heading back from the long weekend rather than already sort of coming into their homes.
22:06But it does kind of hammer home that if we have to be as wary as we are now when it's quiet, you throw 750 homes in here and however many down the road and the game changes very quickly.
22:18Yes.
22:19I'm just going to step in and let this motor home come past.
22:21Thank you very much for all your company so far here on Somerset Live.
22:35If you have only just joined us, it's Daniel Mumby here, your local democracy reporter.
22:39I'm with Liz Brown, who lives here on the eastern edge of Bridgewater.
22:44And we are slowly but surely.
22:47We're dodging the traffic.
22:48Yeah.
22:49In the midst of all these various cars coming down, we're working our way down Bower Lane, looking at the development sites between this narrow country lane essentially and the M5 motorway.
23:01looking at all of these sites which are going to become future housing for Bridgewater under the local plan.
23:10It's very strange to think that Bridgewater once comprised of several little isolated hamlets, Bower being one, Dunwer being another, also Hay Grove, Hamp, Horsey.
23:25You know, this is at the time of the Doomsday Book.
23:28Bridgewater started as a series of these little isolated settlements in Hamlet.
23:34And this is probably the last of those isolated hamlets to be absorbed into the town.
23:42Yeah.
23:43So they don't really still consider the hamlet, but only in name I think.
23:48Yeah.
23:49One issue I wanted to touch on as well, we've talked a bit about keeping this lane quiet for walking and cycling,
23:56and there are various active travel projects that are in the pipeline for Bridgewater.
24:01But one of the comments that we've had a lot from residents who live on the Bridge Estate or other parts of this area is the lack of other public transport, particularly buses.
24:09And what would you like to see addressed if these houses got approved to ensure that people didn't have to drive in and out of the town centre so much?
24:16Well, the trouble you've got is buses are private owned companies really, and it just depends really if they decide to lay on the bus service,
24:27if it's commercially viable for them to do so.
24:30I heard about the development in Leicester, which is probably on a larger scale in fairness,
24:35but the developer has actually formed a trust to actually subsidise the bus service at least for the first year or so,
24:43to actually encourage people to use public transport.
24:46I think what I think we've got is it's all a bit sketchy.
24:49The nature of the Outline Planning Commission is that those details aren't actually verified at the time,
24:56but once they're passed, it then has to go to reserve matters or detailed plans,
25:02by which time the Commission is sort of nominally given for the number of houses.
25:10And I think a reduction in the number of houses will reduce the impacts, as we've said.
25:14But yeah, I certainly think in order to avoid this congestion that we foresee,
25:21certainly a proper bus service put in place would help, certainly into town,
25:27where we've got these two narrow railway bridges,
25:30and it's obviously not going to help people that want to commute to Bristol,
25:34because the blessing and curse of Bridgewater really, in a way,
25:38is its proximity to all this wonderful network of roads and a railway station.
25:44So it's always been earmarked for so much development,
25:47because of its location and its connectivity,
25:50and its gateway to the rest of the West Country and beyond.
25:54And it's very difficult with Bridgewater especially,
25:58we're straight on the motorway at the moment, in five minutes.
26:01Yes.
26:02And it took a little longer when we were to build it.
26:04At the moment, it's still that,
26:07mostly traffic commuting to the motorway,
26:10which the bus service won't help really.
26:14Yeah.
26:15Just to clarify what we mean for those who aren't experts in planning law,
26:18and there's bound to be a few of you watching.
26:20Outline planning applications tend to get approval just for the access arrangements,
26:26and then reserve matters tends to happen later,
26:29and that will cover the specific design, layout, and the final number of houses,
26:33along with the proportion which will be affordable either at social rent or shared ownership.
26:38And it's entirely possible that once outline permission has been secured for a site,
26:43it could be sold to another developer who might have a totally different idea in mind
26:47for the number of homes, the design of them,
26:50and the contributions it might make to community facilities and bus services.
26:54Indeed, there's no rule mechanism for holding feet to the fire, really,
26:57in terms of making sure that what is promised is delivered.
27:02That is a universal problem, of course, not the thought besides the bridge.
27:05No, absolutely.
27:07Yeah.
27:08We had a story not so long ago about the Wyndham Park estate in Yeovil,
27:12being built by Barrett Homes,
27:14and they were trying to get out of upgrading two junctions nearby,
27:20claiming that they weren't that busy and therefore the money wasn't needed.
27:23And it took the local authority four years to make up its mind and go,
27:28actually, no, we kind of need you to do that.
27:30Give us the money.
27:31So hopefully those upgrades will happen very soon.
27:34Any articles that we're sort of referring to here,
27:36we will put those in the description.
27:37So if you're struggling to keep track, don't worry.
27:40There will be a full follow up to this video.
27:42And of course, it will be available on the Somerset Live Facebook page in perpetuity.
27:47So you can watch bits back if you've missed them.
27:49But thank you so much for sticking with us so far.
27:51And we've timed that rather well because we've come to the Strawberry Grange site,
27:56which is the first of the three sites here that has actually been built out.
28:01260 homes have got approval here along with the roundabout,
28:05which will be built in the distance.
28:06We'll get to that in a little while.
28:07And the first stage of the Spine Road running through this site.
28:10Now, obviously, we can't go in the site because we don't want to trespass.
28:14And you can see that construction is proceeding at quite a reasonable pace.
28:18But let's just talk a little bit about this site,
28:20because this was the first one that actually got not just the outline permission,
28:24but the reserve matters to get the go ahead.
28:27Yeah.
28:28Well, it was obviously a strawberry farm.
28:30It was the market garden.
28:31It produced lettuces and flowers.
28:33I used to get my flowers in my hanging baskets here.
28:36But again, it was always in the plan.
28:39And it's now in construction.
28:42There has been some hiatuses.
28:44I believe there's been some property road levels.
28:47Bearing in mind that this little area of Ridgewater is only between
28:50two and six metres above sea level.
28:53So, but it's obviously gathering a pace now for construction.
28:57Part two great deal apart from roofs, really.
29:00Let's take a walk past the gate and take a look in.
29:03The spine road also started.
29:05But it has been a bit stop start.
29:08Yeah, like I say, we can't enter the site because it is privately owned
29:11and we don't want to trespass.
29:13We don't condone that.
29:14But if I just pop the camera here,
29:16give you a sense of what's going on.
29:19Just as a little snapshot.
29:21See how they've had to raise the level of the road there.
29:24For drainage, presumably.
29:26Yes, you can see various pipes sticking out of the ground
29:29and lots of concrete lying around, so.
29:32I mean, the soil structure is a lot of earth movements.
29:35They do completely disturb the soil structure.
29:39And it always has at least major developments.
29:41When I start growing up in my garden
29:43and my bungalow was built in about 1970.
29:46Of course, as this stretch moves forward,
29:50we're probably going to encounter quite a lot more lorries of that size.
29:53So, we'll have to double our efforts to not get run over.
29:56What I can ever understand is that not many, you know,
29:59they say a lot of the reasons for us needing so much extra housing
30:03is the, erm,
30:06I don't know what I'm saying.
30:08Must be, erm,
30:10people living in separate units.
30:15Do you ever understand why they're not,
30:17with all the people who have to get injured,
30:19maybe perhaps a retirement village or something like that,
30:22the single unit.
30:23If they're going to be big,
30:25they're going to be, sort of,
30:27minimums two, probably,
30:29mostly will be three, four, five bedrooms.
30:32Erm, so,
30:33I think they'll end up being houses of multiple occupancy.
30:36Or, as I say,
30:37you know,
30:38people that can ditch their mortgages in London
30:40and come down here and live.
30:41And, erm,
30:42quite a nice big cap, really.
30:44Yes.
30:45So, again,
30:46a bit questionable as to whether it will really help the local needs.
30:50Yeah,
30:51because we should talk a bit about, erm,
30:53we've mentioned viability earlier in this conversation.
30:55And viability doesn't just mean being able to make a profit.
30:59It means being able to make a certain level of profit.
31:02And there is quite a lot of wiggle room in our planning law at the moment,
31:05where a developer can come back to a local authority and say,
31:09sorry, the sums don't add up for us to make a huge amount of money.
31:12So can we get rid of, say, some affordable housing
31:15or not give you that play area or all those other things that we've promised.
31:18And it strikes me that that's one of the big things in the system that needs fixing.
31:22Absolutely.
31:23Absolutely.
31:24There's too many.
31:25We never do.
31:26We never do.
31:27We never do.
31:28And, erm,
31:29surely if the condition is put in and stipulated as part of the planning,
31:35it should be adhered to.
31:36And, I guess, in a way,
31:39the developers have just got too much power because the drivers don't develop us
31:43at all costs.
31:44And I said, well,
31:45does this mean that existing residents,
31:46and even new residents,
31:47will have to put out the first thing service?
31:48And you said, yes,
31:49because it's development at all costs.
31:50And that's the government's strategy at the moment.
31:51Yes.
31:52To simulate the economy, create GDP.
31:53It's...
31:54I'm not sure it's really for true need, and certainly not local need.
31:58And if you...
31:59I guess as time goes on, if the housing market does slow down,
32:03and hope that the himself development is actually kind of on hold,
32:04because they've not been able to sell existing units.
32:05So...
32:06Maybe that things don't get...
32:07Yeah.
32:08That's the government's strategy at the moment.
32:09Yes.
32:10To simulate the economy, create GDP.
32:11It's...
32:12I'm not sure it's really for true need, and certainly not local need.
32:13And if you...
32:14I guess as time goes on, if the housing market does slow down,
32:16and hope that the himself development is actually kind of on hold,
32:18because they've not been able to sell existing units.
32:19So...
32:20Maybe that things don't get...
32:21Round is not broken for some time anyhow.
32:22Yeah.
32:23Kingsdown, just to qualify, is the development to the north of Bath Road?
32:25Or is that a different part of Bridgewater?
32:26It's the old cellophane side, so it's kind of round there.
32:27Okay.
32:28Quite near the north of Bath Road.
32:29Yeah.
32:30Yeah.
32:31Yeah.
32:32Yeah.
32:33Yeah.
32:34Yeah.
32:35Yeah.
32:36Yeah.
32:37Yeah.
32:38Yeah.
32:39Yeah.
32:40Yeah.
32:41Yeah.
32:42Yeah.
32:43Yeah.
32:44Yeah.
32:45Yeah.
32:46Probably.
32:47Okay.
32:48Quite near the new Squibbers Way that recently opened.
32:50Um, it's just Bath Road as we started on the other side of Bath Road.
32:54Ah, okay.
32:55Yeah.
32:56Yeah.
32:57I suppose another thing we should touch on,
32:59we talked earlier in this conversation about funding for local health services,
33:03but there is also the question of whether building this close to the motorway
33:07is actually going to create a lot of long-term health problems.
33:09We had a report from the NHS a couple of months ago saying that Bridgewater
33:13already has a higher than average level of COPD, that's long-term chronic lung disease.
33:19Are you worried that whether these houses meet local need or not,
33:24you're going to end up with a lot of people with long-term medical conditions that need
33:27support and the funding and the facilities aren't going to be there for them?
33:30Yeah.
33:31Exactly.
33:32Exactly.
33:33So, everybody knows that it's not good news to live right next to a major road
33:36and the motorway is even worse, especially in the summer when there's an accident,
33:40the holiday traffic and everything's at the sandfield,
33:42everybody's still running their engine.
33:45I think we'll just wait until this tractor has gone past so we don't have to completely lose our voices.
34:07Thanks for bearing with us with all the traffic noise.
34:09It just goes to reinforce how busy the road is without people building on it.
34:15They're almost starting to have that road.
34:17Yes.
34:18Yeah, so going back to the air pollution thing,
34:20it's something we're looking into if sufficient monitoring was actually done
34:24on the motorway carriageway because in the agenda report,
34:28which Follicks Farm was passed on,
34:31it was actually stated by the Environmental Health Officer
34:34that there would be no impacts from the development,
34:36no significant impacts from the development of Follicks Farm,
34:40but that doesn't really say about the air pollution impacts from the motorway.
34:47And although you could argue that people are going,
34:50driving electrified vehicles, that's not going to happen in five minutes
34:54and certainly not for HGVs which are going to be the biggest polluters.
34:57There are concerns about the health impacts on the new and the existing residents
35:02and almost certainly the affordable houses are going to be right along the motorway.
35:06We've seen that in the plans.
35:08Yeah, absolutely.
35:09So we've come to the edge of the Strawberry Grange development behind us
35:12and this is the current junction where Dunway Lane ahead of us
35:16meets Bower Lane and the A372 Western Zoyland Road
35:20that goes all the way out over the motorway into the heart of the Somerset levels
35:24eventually reaching Langport.
35:25We're going to quickly cross over here and take a quick gander down there
35:29at the Follicks Farm site and we'll probably end our stream
35:32just beyond those trees in the distance.
35:34So we'll just stop talking for a second so we can safely negotiate.
35:39Like I say, this will eventually be a forearm roundabout with cycle lanes on it
35:45so you won't have quite such a precarious experience of crossing it as we just have.
35:51And now the field that you can see in front of us with these potato signs marking it.
35:56This is where 530 homes got permission back in February this year.
36:01It was originally going to be 560 but the developer, there was a nominal reduction by Hannock Homes,
36:08one half of the developers.
36:09So talk us through your concerns for this site and in particular the damage to the trees and the wildlife
36:16that we've seen since that approval was granted.
36:19Well, with the damage that we've started down, they are going to see some of the trees, they say in the plans,
36:27but an awful lot of hedge votes have been removed.
36:29And these hedge votes have probably been in the past hundreds of years.
36:32And as soon as they were moved, the biodiversity lost.
36:36An enormous biodiversity loss further down into the campaign.
36:41I've got quite clear to find biodiversity in the country because there's nowhere to go.
36:49And the pages are so important for our formations and our birds, particularly
36:54there's some of the insects species.
36:57And there's quite a few mature trees here.
37:00And I don't think a lot of them will be remaining once the ground is broken.
37:05Obviously, as I say, the ground itself is a water storage.
37:10You know, once it's been closed in Colbury, it's found to be more runoff for flooding.
37:15And a lot of the local residents have been actually concerned about the flooding,
37:19or the potential flood impacts for covering so much ground in Colbury in the area.
37:26It's just not really the same.
37:28The whole character of the area will change.
37:31And again, so many people enjoy walking down here, exercising their dog, jogging, horse riding.
37:38It's a nice little bit of green wedge we've got between us and the motorway.
37:44So I walked down in Stenley, and the motorway embankment rises.
37:48I came up in my bungalow one night, and I heard this beautiful singing.
37:53It's the only one thing it can be.
37:57There's a night ago.
37:58Oh!
37:59It's so rare to actually have a night again this far west in England.
38:06I've heard it since.
38:08It's absolutely brilliant.
38:09But I'll just show you a little bit of scrub left here and there, how important it is.
38:14And yeah, all the rest will be completely different.
38:19It's the most rare.
38:20In my view, and I'm not the only one, I'm not speaking just myself here,
38:24as I said, we all accept that this now is a bubble in the local plan.
38:31But if the numbers were reduced to what is coded in the local plan,
38:35you've got the opportunity both to pull back the development fundamentals,
38:40allowing a corridor.
38:42Hedroes and motorways, sighted motorways,
38:46would be more important for people to move onto one.
38:49It would also enable people not to be really in the traffic gears
38:53if you pull the most of these development facts away from the motorway edge.
38:57It would also, there would also be a lot of benefits for the people living in.
39:01If you had a better buffer for the wildlife and the humans.
39:08Yes.
39:09I think that's the better.
39:10And if you reduce the numbers to what's coded in the local plan,
39:14I think you could achieve that.
39:16Yeah, we should point out as well, the spine road that we talked about earlier on
39:20is not stretching into this part of the allocation.
39:23That stops at the new roundabout.
39:25Dunwear Lane, which we're walking on at the moment,
39:27is going to be left largely intact,
39:29but it will be slightly downgraded with a new link road running through the site
39:33to serve the new houses.
39:35But one thing we should touch on before we come to the end of our journey.
39:38There was a lot of talk at the public meeting back in April about
39:42being able to link the southern bit of this site up to Scribbers Way
39:46and the fact that that's been a non-starter for many years.
39:49Can you talk us through the details of that?
39:51I'm not sure.
39:52What I'm sure as part of this has done is that
39:55the highways, people have said that
40:00the impact on the county wildlife site have done went false.
40:04But I know that certainly Scribbers Way
40:07doesn't seem to be used to its fault.
40:10They said that perhaps what it was designed for
40:13would have to be more of a relief road for some of the congestion.
40:17And a lot of local people are pushing for that to be considered.
40:22But I think one of the problems they have is that
40:25infrastructure was supposed to be considered
40:28suitable for this mass development to be given the green light.
40:31And that doesn't seem to have happened.
40:33Right, we're just going to go a few yards further.
40:36Thank you so much to everyone who has joined us on this live stream.
40:40If you have only just joined us, don't worry.
40:42This will be available after the event on our Facebook page.
40:45What we're going to do is just take a little pause in this lay-by.
40:48We're going to look back heading north over the whole site
40:52and do a little summing up.
40:54And thank you so much for all of your company,
40:56your comments and your other contributions.
40:58They are greatly appreciated.
40:59If we didn't get to your question, I'm really, really sorry.
41:02I will attempt to answer as many of them as I can in the comments.
41:05So Liz, we will now just look back.
41:08We can see the Strawberry Grange homes over our shoulder.
41:12We can still hear the rumble of the motorway this time to our right
41:16because we're looking north.
41:17Just sum up in a couple of sentences why it is important to preserve this area.
41:24And if it is going to be built on, what's the right way to go about it?
41:27It will change the character of our locality in all sorts of ways.
41:33Landscape, amenity, fresh air, biodiversity.
41:39And the impacts that have developed themselves are going to be huge amounts of traffic congestion,
41:44pressure on local services and increased air pollution for the local residents that live here.
41:52Ideally, we would like the council to reconsider the figures and really stick to what is quoted in the local plan
41:59that was agreed and adopted local plan and not go above them.
42:04I think that would allow for the impacts to be less.
42:07As I say, perhaps bring the development away from the motorway boundary to allow wildlife to thrive
42:13and have a redesign really and allow the new residents to be able to breathe effectively.
42:20Yeah. Excellent. Thank you very much indeed for your time, Liz Brown.
42:24Thank you very much to everyone who has joined us this Bank Holiday Monday
42:28as we take one last step off the road to avoid this van coming and knocking me down.
42:32Like I say, this video will be available on our Facebook page after we finish streaming.
42:37So if you missed any part of it, please go back through and take a look.
42:40There's a lot of interesting information and there will be a follow up article appearing on Somerset Live,
42:45the website either Tuesday or Wednesday.
42:47But in the meantime, thank you to Liz for your company.
42:49Thank you to everyone here who's been commenting and watching throughout the stream.
42:53A special thanks if you joined us from the very start.
42:56I've been Daniel Mumby, your local democracy reporter,
42:58and I wish you all the best for what's left of your long weekend.
43:01I wish you all the best for what's left of your long weekend.