Work begins on access road into Firepool site in Taunton

Somerset West and Taunton Council granted permission in February 2022 for a new access road to connect the Firepool regeneration site to the A3087 Trenchard Way near Taunton railway station.

Work began on Monday morning (January 30) on the scheme, which will also create a permanent access for the station’s multi-storey car park, operated by Great Western Railway (GWR).

The council hopes the work will be completed within five months, as work to deliver other elements of the Firepool site moves forward at the same time.

Councillor Mike Rigby, portfolio holder for economic development, planning and transportation, spoke to the Local Democracy Reporting Service when he visited the site of the new junction on Monday morning (January 30).

He said: “It’s been a long time coming. Trenchard Way is some years old now, but it was always intended that this junction would give proper access to the multi-storey car park.

“This means we can get buses back up to the railway station, something which hasn’t been the case for some time.

“But it also gives us access into the Firepool site. It’s an iconic regeneration project, which had stalled for years until we picked it up a couple of years ago and got everything moving again.”

Mr Rigby said the start date for the Firepool access work was a combination of careful planning and being responsive after a new contractor needed to be secured.

Councillor Mike Rigby at the Firepool access road site in Taunton. (Image: Daniel Mumby)

He said: “The initial contractor pulled out. Over the last 12 months, there’s been a huge increase in inflation and construction costs in particular have gone up a lot.

“The previous contractor lost interest in the project, so we had to go back out to tender. We’ve found a local company and they’re now on site ready to get going.

“For ten years between 2010 and 2020, the county council spent precisely nothing on upgrading traffic signals.

“It got to the point where at the bottom of Cheddon Road, one of them actually literally fell over – it snapped in half. We’ve had a rolling programme to upgrade these signals.

“What we didn’t want to do was to create a situation where we had lots of major works going on in Taunton simultaneously.

“Those traffic signal works are now out of the way, on time and on budget, and we’re ready now to get going here on Trenchard Way.”

Motorists using Trenchard Way will face temporary traffic lights, with full road closures being kept to a minimum and being advertised locally in advance.

The Firepool junction will be staggered away from the car park junction, with Trenchard Way will be resurfaced as part of the programme.

The new junction will have cycle lanes which will connect up to the new boulevard running through the site, which will be partially delivered through the government’s future high streets fund.

The new Digital Innovation Centre at the northern end of the Firepool site. (Image: Daniel Mumby)

Mr Rigby said: “It’s a four- to five-month project. You’ve got to get this work done so that we get the wider benefits – I’m really looking forward to being able to get the buses back up here.

“Inevitably there will be some disruption, particularly on a well-used road like this, but it’s necessary to get those benefits.”

Mr Rigby declined to reveal the overall cost of the project, stating that it was “a seven-figure sum”.

In February 2021, the county council allocated £1.27m towards improving the roads around Taunton railway station and the Firepool site, of which £400,000 came from the government’s getting building fund.

The temporary boulevard through the Firepool site closed to the public in November 2022, allowing the council’s contractors to begin raising the entire site to prevent flooding from the River Tone and unlocking different parts of the site for development.

This work will be completed by May, around the time that the new digital innovation centre – currently being constructed by Willmott Dixon for Somerset County Council – will open its doors to new tenant businesses.

The district council is currently going out to tender for a company to deliver the new southern boulevard through the site, after planning permission was granted by councillors in November 2022.

Mr Rigby said: “Despite the pandemic and the phosphates moratorium, we’ve got massive activity on the site, sorting out the drainage and levels to bring the site out of the floodplain to make sure it’s secure for the future.

“As we complete that work, the idea is that work on the boulevard – this wide, really attractive walkway and cycleway through the site, linking up the railway station with Priory Bridge – will start as soon as the drainage work finishes.

“It will be possible to get from Trenchard Way to St James’ Street without crossing a road. The goal is that you have an uninterrupted way with upgraded crossings to get from the station to Vivary Park.

“I would hope is that if we stood here in 12 months’ time, we could look onto the site and all that would be done. All the projects we’ve got running at the moment are all fully costed and fully funded.”

The final masterplan for developing the Firepool site will be adopted by the district council in March, shortly before the new unitary Somerset Council takes control.