SOMERSET Council has promised that it will prioritise making it easier to walk and cycle into Chard town centre if plans for new homes on the town’s southern edge are approved in the coming months.
The Chard Eastern Development Area (CEDA) was identified in the South Somerset Local Plan as the main area of housing growth in Chard up to 2028, with the plan envisioning at least 2,700 new homes, 17 hectares of commercial space, two primary schools and the long-awaited eastern relief road.
Much of the attention in recent years has been focussed on housebuilding along the A358 Tatworth Road, with Tilia Homes in the late stage of constructing 200 homes on the Snowdon Grange site and two other major developments planned for the neighbouring fields.
The council has declined to state when a decision on these development sites will be taken – but it has pledged to ensure pedestrians and cyclists will have safe routes into the town centre as part of any approval.
Two major developments are planned near the Snowdon Grange site – 94 homes immediately to the south (put forward by Summerfield Developments) and 236 homes in the adjoining fields between the A358 and the B3162 Forton Road (put forward by Persimmon Homes South West).
Both developments have gone through numerous revisions in light of concerns about localised flooding, traffic levels within the town centre and sufficient funding being provided to deliver a new school in the town.
Both sites have also been delayed by the ongoing phosphates crisis, with both developers having to put forward mitigation plans to prevent damage to the Somerset Levels and Moors (and, in the case of the Persimmon site, the River Axe catchment area).
The two sites are accessible on foot from the town centre via narrow pavements, which are barely wide enough for wheelchair users or pushchairs and unsuitable for bicycles or mobility scooters.
There is currently little scope for widening the existing foot-ways and little room for a dedicated cycle lane either on or just off the A358, which serves as the main road connecting Chard to Tatworth, Axminster, Seaton and the wider east Jurassic Coast.
In addition to being narrow, the pavements between Chard and Tatworth are regularly overgrown – and there is a lack of safe, dedicated crossing points, especially near the Persimmon site.
The abundance of vegetation on these paths in the summer of 2022 prompted local resident Jill White to stand on the offending footpath in very little clothing with placards reading: “I’ve trimmed my bush, now Highways trim yours” (in reference to Somerset County Council’s highways department).”
Speaking in mid-May this year, Ms White said: “It’s the bottom of the hedges that need clearing. And there needs to be something in place so you don’t have to cross the cross the road at least three times before coming into Chard from Tatworth.
“We need a continuous pavement wide enough for all users, rather than the three crossing points.”
Recently revised proposals for the Summerfield site include improvements to the existing pavements along Tatworth Road, along with a pedestrian link into the Holbear estate and footpaths to link up with both Snowdon Grange and the Persimmon site.
A spokesman for Thrive Architects (representing the Taunton-based developer) said: “The proposals seek to provide a development that is conscious of its surroundings responding to the various constraints and opportunities identified throughout the design process.
“A mix of house types is provided to help create a people-orientated community with a close relationship to the surrounding residential areas and town centre.
“Fully interconnected spaces create a legible and permeable development helping to provide a safe and attractive environment.”
At the Persimmon site, the developer intends to deliver a new roundabout near the current entrance to Two Ash Farm, which will form the beginning of the eastern relief road running through the site up to Forton Road (where it can be extended northwards in future years).
The new roundabout will include pedestrian crossing points and cycle lanes, which will run along the length of the relief road and connect up with the existing pavements.
A spokesman for Walsingham Planning (representing the developer) stated in September 2023: “The design and layout of the homes and the proposed distributor road have been amended with the number of homes to the south of the site reduced, combined with an improvement to the green infrastructure network provided along the relief road.
“This ‘green link’ is formed by a separated path for shared use by pedestrians and cyclists.”
Both applications will need to come before the council’s planning committee south (which handles major applications within the former South Somerset area) for final approval once a phosphates solution has been agreed and other legal issues have been sorted out.
As part of these legal agreements, funding could be sought to provide new or improved active travel networks elsewhere in the southern part of Chard – such as enhancing the on-road sections of the Stop Line Way towards the Millfield area, or investigating creating multi-user paths to take cyclists away from the A358, using similar methods to those implemented on recent extensions of the Strawberry Line.
The council said it was working hard to ensure that residents of the new homes would not have to rely on the private car to access local services, including the doctors’ surgery on St. Mary’s Close.
A spokesman said: “A committee date has not yet been set as we are still discussing the details with the developer and our planning department.
“We are focused on trying to ensure good pedestrian and cycling links with the town as part of those discussions.”
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