Car-free route could connect two towns

Plans for a car-free link to connect two towns have moved a step closer after £8,000 funding was secured for a new study.

Pedestrians and cyclists travelling between Taunton and Wellington, Somerset, have to rely on the A38, which it is often congested and has narrow pavements.

Wellington resident Charles Biscoe has been developing proposals for a new route, dubbed the Grand Western Greenway, which will link the towns by following the former Grand Western Canal route.

Mr Biscoe said he hopes to have the first draft for the route completed by early 2025.

Taunton Town Council and Wellington Town Council's £8,000 grant will go toward developing designs for the path.

A feasibility study into a proposed route linking the towns was published in late-2023, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

It identified options for where the road could go, including the delivery of new cycle paths right alongside the main road.

Under Mr Biscoe's plans, the Grand Western Greenway would run some seven-and-a-half miles from Longforth Farm in Wellington and finishing at Taunton railway station.

Mr Biscoe, who is chairman of the Grand Western Greenway Association, said: "We will be looking closely at the Taunton and Wellington phases.

"We need this work to be done so we have much more information to begin negotiating with landowners in a much more considered approach."

The Grand Western Canal ran between Tiverton and Taunton, with the original idea being traced back to 1796.

The Somerset stretch of the canal has largely disappeared apart from a few footpaths and heritage assets, including the Nynehead boat lift near Wellington.

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