Residents face tricky trips through industrial estate

RESIDENTS of a major new housing development in Crewkerne face years of travelling through an industrial estate to reach the town centre.

- DANIEL MUMBY Local democracy journalist [e-mail]

Taylor Wimpey Exeter is construct-ing the Wool Gardens housing estate on the Crewkerne Key Site, which will eventually comprise 635 homes, a 66-bed care home and commercial space between the A30 Yeovil Road and the A356 Station Road.

The developer originally promised that a new signal-controlled junction on Station Road, joining up with the southern end of the new link road, would be in place before 55 homes within the development had been built and occupied. But the delivery of this junction and the wider Crewkerne Link Road (CLR) has been pushed back until nearly 200 homes within the entire site have been completed and occupied, following discussions with Somerset Council which concluded in late-May.

Until this road is completed and subsequently adopted, residents will have to travel through the Blacknell Lane industrial estate to access local shops, leisure facilities and medical help a route which has limited and inconsistent provision for pedestrians and cyclists.

Taylor Wimpey has said it was committed to making walking and cycling into the town easier, pledging £137,000 towards new schemes under its existing legal agreements with the council.

The southern junction designs (and those of the entire link road) were agreed with South Somerset District Council when outline planning permission was granted in 2020. As well as serving the first 110 homes within the development site, the Station Road junction will also provide a safer access to a 66-bed care home which will be delivered by LNT Care Developments after planning permission was granted in mid-May.