A team of local people has cleared an overgrown footpath in Highbridge after safety concerns were raised last week.
Concerns were raised here over the footpath leading into Highbridge from the new 248-home Isleport Grove development.
Countryside Partnerships is currently constructing the new Isleport Grove site along Isleport Lane.
Pedestrians wishing to avoid the existing pavements along the busy Mark Road into the town have to use a narrow, near-impassible footpath through the town’s industrial estate and across the railway line.
Local resident Joy Russell says: “As a goodwill gesture Highbridge Angling Association has mowed right along the path from the footbridge after the railway level crossing running alongside the recently installed blue fencing for the Boklok housing development next to Lakeside to the footbridge which leads to the Isleport business park at the top of the Walrow footpath.”
“The work was carried out by Community Payback chaps who have done some sterling work for HAA over the past few years including helping plant trees and shrubs back in March to help support the local wildlife.”
She added: “The public footpath at the top of the fishing complex at Walrow ponds, just outside the Heras fencing had become extremely overgrown, making it almost impossible for all but the most determined user to pass along it. The ‘No Mow May’ policy adopted by the council didn’t take into account the very wet Spring which encouraged extremely vigorous plant growth.”
The Isleport Grove site was allocated within the Sedgemoor Local Plan, which runs until 2032, and has had outline planning permission in place since November 2019.
The site was one of several in the Highbridge and Burnham-On-Sea area which was held up by National Highways “recognised safety concerns” about the capacity of Burnham’s Edithmead roundabout, which links both settlements to junction 22 of the M5.
National Highways put a “holding position” in place on the development, ensuring that no more than 100 homes within the site could be built until a scheme to upgrade the roundabout had been agreed.
The Department for Transport (DfT) is currently considering plans to upgrade the A38 between the Edithmead roundabout and Bristol Airport, which were put forward jointly by Somerset County Council and North Somerset Council.
In February, Sedgemoor District Council agreed a £1.6m “Plan B” to upgrade the roundabout – meaning that the full development can now be delivered, along with a new Highbridge McDonald’s drive-thru and Greggs drive-thru at Oaktree Park, off the A38 Bristol Road, and new distribution hubs and warehouses on both Pillmore Lane and the Pople’s Bow site, near the Bristol Road roundabout.
The existing public rights of way begins opposite the existing homes on Isleport Lane, with no designated pavement leading from the new development to the footpath.
The route winds through the industrial estate next to Bennett Road, crossing the busy Bennett Road via some steps – and is now fully accesible again.
