Wincanton Transport Plan - 2013 Wincanton Town Council Transport Plan 2013 RAD Page 1 Wincanton Transport Plan - 2013 Wincanton Town Council Transport Plan Chapter Content Page 1 Introduction 3 2 Overview 7 3 Roads and Traffic 9 4 Public Transport – Rail 15 5 Public Transport – Bus 16 6 Walking – Surfaces Footways and Footpaths 20 7 Walking – Public Footpaths and Bridleways 24 8 Cycling 26 9 High Street / Bayford Hill 29 10 Car Parks 31 11 Signage 35 12 Summary 37 Appendix 1 Parish Path Liaison Officers (PPLO) Footpaths in the Wincanton Parish Report 38 Somerset County Council - Cycling and Walking in Somerset Map 19 Edition 2 Appendix 2 39 - Wincanton Including Stoke Trister, Bayford and Holton A Summary of the Wincanton Town Transport Study Consultation Report of Appendix 3 40 2000 – Somerset County Council, South Somerset District Council, WS Atkins References: 1. Wincanton Peoples Plan 2006 - 2026 2. Wincanton Strategy Committee Questionnaire 1998 3. A Summary of the Wincanton Town Transport Study Consultation Report 2000 (SSDC/Somerset County Council/WS Atkins) 4. Berrys Coaches Superfast Timetable 5. First 58/158 Timetable 6. South West Coaches 168 Timetable 7. Past Wincanton Town Council Minutes and issues raised by Wincanton residents at Council meetings. RAD Page 2 Wincanton Transport Plan - 2013 1. Introduction 1.1 Wincanton is a small town in south Somerset, southwest England. Wincanton is situated on the north east edge of Blackmore Vale, 15 miles (24 km) north east of Yeovil, and 12 miles (19 km) North West of Shaftesbury on the extreme southeast of Somerset close to the borders of Dorset and Wiltshire. The town lies on the A303 road, the main route between London and South West England, and has some light industry. 1.2 This ancient parish of Wincanton lies in the south-east part of the county and at its centre is the largest town of the district. The parish is divided between one principal and three smaller areas, and many very small pieces of land consisting of isolated fields, and is highly irregular in shape. In the north and north-west its boundaries interlock with Charlton Musgrove and Shepton Montague in a manner which suggests that, like them, it was formerly part of the royal manor and minster parish of Bruton. Traces of that link were still to be found in the 1080s when a new hundred was created of which Wincanton was the temporary head. A borough had been created by the mid 14th Century, presumably by the Lovel family. In the northeast of the parish is the site of the small Augustinian priory of Stavordale, most of whose estates lay in the immediate neighbourhood. 1.3 The main part of the parish measured 7 km. from north-west to south-east and over 2 km. from east to west at its widest point. The three main detached areas stretched from the town 2 km. north to Roundhill, 2 km. north-west to Cuttlesham, and nearly 4 km. north-east to Stavordale. The distance from Roundhill to Rodgrove, near the southern boundary beyond Marsh, is 8 km. The only natural boundaries were stretches of the river Cale, from which the town derives part of its name. Part of the Selwood ridge road was the boundary in the extreme north-east. 1.4 The River Cale rises on the western scarp of the Selwood ridge just above the 180-m. (590ft.) contour and flows first south and then south-west across a broad clay valley, forming the boundary with Charlton Musgrove. It is joined by a stream from Roundhill and then follows the line of the Mere fault where a narrow, steep-sided valley has been formed through a ridge of disjointed outcrops of Forest Marble clay and Cornbrash limestone. Emerging from that valley, the river turns abruptly south and then continues south-east forming a band of alluvium sandwiched between Oxford Clay, RAD Page 3 Wincanton Transport Plan - 2013 eventually joining the river Stour. Wincanton town, presumably originating around the parish church on roughly level ground beside the Cale, first evidently spread eastwards up the south-western side of Windmill Hill (139 m. (456 ft.)). The route through the town was described c. 1700 as 'a steep precipice, all rocks', and part of the hill was quarried from the earlier 18th century until 1900. 1.5 Wincanton lies at the junction of routes from Castle Cary, Bruton, Mere (Wilts.), Sherborne (Dors.), and Yeovil. The east-west route through the town formed part of the main London-Plymouth road by the later 17th Century and it was turnpiked by the Wincanton trust together with those to Milborne Port and Castle Cary in 1756. In 1818 a new road was built across Ball Common, east of the parish, probably continuing through Shalford. It was extended through Roundhill to Bruton in 1831, and North Street was turnpiked in 1818 as part of the road to Shepton Montague. The roads were disturnpiked in 1874. Further road improvements, planned in 1937-8 for a western relief road and London-Plymouth road to bypass the town, were built in 1977. 1.6 The town had a railway station on the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway but this closed on 7 March 1966. The Dorset Central Railway line reached Wincanton in 1861. The station opened in the same year and was one of the first to be lit by gas. In 1862 the company merged with the Somerset Central Railway to become the Somerset and Dorset Railway, controlling a line from Bath to Bournemouth. Goods traffic south of Wincanton ceased in 1965 and to the north in 1966. The line closed to passengers in 1966 and the track and buildings were removed to make way for housing. 1.7 The town has a population of 4,643 (Census 2001). Despite this small population, Wincanton is also a service town for at least another 3,500 people living in the settlements in the surrounding countryside, in particular; the neighbouring parishes of Abbas and Templecombe, Bayford and Stoke Trister, Blackford, Bratton Seymour, Charlton Musgrove, Cucklington, Holton, Horsington, North Cheriton, Penselwood and South Cheriton. 1.8 A number of documents have been complied in the past - Wincanton Peoples Plan 2006 – 2026, Wincanton Strategy Committee Questionnaire 1998 and A Summary of the Wincanton Town Transport Study Consultation Report 2000 (SSDC/Somerset County Council/WS Atkins). References to these are made in this document. RAD Page 4 Wincanton Transport Plan - 2013 RAD Page 5 Wincanton Transport Plan - 2013 1.9 Wincanton has had approximately 700+ houses built or been given planning permission for since 2004. The two largest developments are Kingwell Rise (Deansley Way) to the East of the town, along the A303 and the ‘Key site’, The Chase (New Barns) to the West of the town. Other development sites include Cale House (Former site of transport business Wincanton PLC) and Bayford Hill. More recently an application for 58 dwellings to be built adjacent to the Wincanton Community Hospital, using the hospital car park as an entrance point has not approved. There is concern from Wincanton Town council about the use of the car park as an entry/exit point and Dancing Lane is unsuitable for heavy traffic use, as it is narrow and single carriageway in places. At time of writing an appeal against the non-approval went forward to judicial review, but was turned down by the Judge on natural justice. The Judge maintained it would have to go back to another enquiry. 1.10 These current developments are leading to Wincanton’s current transport problems. The Chase (283 dwellings) is being developed North of an existing business park. The southern routing of domestic traffic is through the business park. Kingwell Rise (245 dwellings) is egressed with a single entrance road through an existing housing estate (Deansley Way) and give rise to “rat runs” morning and evening in adjacent residential areas. The Ministry of Defence has recently purchased 85 dwellings in Kingwell, in order to house military families based at Yeovilton following drawdown of troops from Germany. 1.11 The town centre is accessed from the South from Southgate Road via the new round-a-bout (constructed 2013) into Station Road, B3081; the start of the one way system. This one way system travels around the Parish Church (St Peter and St Paul) onto Church Street (B3081) around the town hall, down South Street/Tout Hill, going past the Catholic Church (St Luke and St Teresa’s) and back onto Southgate Road. The One way system is joined onto by North Street (B3081) and High Street both at the junction of Town Square/Town Hall. It has a number of danger points where serious accidents are inevitable. The island outside the town hall it could be argued has the wrong precedence (give way to the left). The pavement going from the town Hall down to South Street/Tout Hill is narrow and has been the cause of a number of minor injuries, but with the size of wing mirrors on buses and lorries becoming ever larger and projecting further, as serious head injury will follow. Just down from RAD Page 6 Wincanton Transport Plan - 2013 the town hall, parking outside the NatW est bank and small store; causes traffic jams as large vehicles cannot pass, crucially buses including Berry’s Coaches (London to Taunton service). This one way system has high volumes of traffic at various times of the day. This increases hugely on race days of the nearby Wincanton Racecourse; situated North of the town via the B3081 (North Street/ Old Hill). Traffic has to negotiate the one way system between historic buildings, parked cars, traffic islands and other traffic joining from the feeder roads North and West of the one way system.