Council changes may hamper delivery of Somerset active travel routes

The council is currently undergoing a transformation programme, with around 1,000 staff expected to lose their jobs by 2027 as departments are restructured and services are streamlined as part of a wider set of measures to balance the budget.

As part of this ongoing process, the council has lost prominent figures within its highways and transport team, with campaign groups claiming this has led to delays in supported active travel schemes being taken forward for either approval or further study.

The council said it would be utilising the recently-created local community networks (LCNs) to progress future active travel schemes and that it remained committed to delivering schemes where funding was already in place.

In an email to several active travel groups (seen by the Local Democracy Reporting Service), Sunita Mills, the council’s head of transportation, confirmed that the council would have to take a different tack following the departure of Sarah Ellwood, who served as its leading active travel technical officer until July.

Ms Mills said: “As you’re aware, Sarah Ellwood has left Somerset Council.

“Due to ongoing organisational changes and a shift in how we will deliver active travel, we have reviewed our engagement approach with our councillors, delivery teams and planning teams.

“LCNs have become an effective way for local people to bring their thoughts, issues, and suggestions to elected members, and other key service providers.

“After discussion with LCN teams and other officers, we feel this is the most effective way for you to stay connected with what is going on for infrastructure projects in Somerset, as well as bringing any issues or suggestions you have forward.

“It will no longer be possible for us, or the infrastructure programme delivery team, to deal with email enquiries.”

The LCN network was created to bring together Somerset Council division members with town and parish councils, voluntary organisations and other relevant bodies, with a view to delivering small-scale, hyper-local improvements without the need for significant sums of council funding.

The LCNs are looking into some improvements in active travel under the leadership of Gerard Tucker, who heads up Aller Parish Council and has been aiming to connect up settlements across the Somerset Levels and Moors by improving existing rights of way and delivering new cycle routes where needed.

One project which had been seeking Somerset Council’s support is the Grand Western Greenway, which aims to deliver a car-free route between the Longforth Farm development site in Wellington and Taunton railway station, loosely following the route of the former Grand Western Canal.

Charles Biscoe, who has been spearheading the project, lobbied the council’s active travel team to secure “a very small part” of a £400,000 revenue grant which was provided by Active Travel England to design new walking and cycling schemes across Somerset.

But despite an initial positive meeting, the council’s team ultimately refused to be involved with the project – leaving Mr Biscoe to approach the local town and parish councils to secure the £8,000 needed for the feasibility study.

He said: “We are puzzled by this as it seems so at odds with the council’s objectives.

“Sure, they haven’t got any money of their own, but we have never intended to ask them for any.

“I appreciate things cannot be easy at the council, and the team is smaller than it was but, in my opinion, they still have a job to do, and creating a traffic-free route between the county town and its nearest sizeable satellite should probably be part of that.”

The planned site of a new cycle route along South Street in Yeovil. (Image: Daniel Mumby)

Matthew Prince, the council’s service manager for transport policy, had told Mr Biscoe – in a further email exchange – that his staff were “exceptionally busy with a number of projects” and staff changes meant that he had “no resource to add any additional workloads to the programme”.

The council is currently in the process of delivering various active travel schemes across the county, either as standalone projects or as part of wider infrastructure upgrades.

These include the improvements to the Linham Road cycle route in Bridgwater, the boulevards through the Firepool site in Taunton and three ‘missing links’ within Yeovil town centre.

Colin Gummer, communications manager for the Bridgwater Area Cycling Campaign (BACC), corroborated Ms Mills’ account and said the council needed more resources to ensure these schemes saw the light of day.

He said: “We’ve always had an open channel of communication with Somerset Council.

“They had, until recently, an active travel team. Sarah Ellwood, who was doing something similar to BACC in the Minehead area, was very influential years ago in the creation of the Steam Coast Trail.

“We had a direct line of communication with her and her team – every few months we’d meet over Microsoft Teams.

“She and her team were fantastic – but sadly, they’ve been axed. You can see they’re massively under-resourced [at the council] – they have enormous will and drive, but their hands are tied.”

Somerset Council said it would not confirm whether individual employees had left the organisation, and said the staffing changes brought about through its transformation programme would lead to more effective consultation and decision-making over future active travel schemes.

A spokesman said: “We do not comment on matters concerning individual employees.

“As with any major restructure there is going to need to be a reorganisation of resources, but this is primarily about utilising the LCNs as an opportunity for many voices to be heard, and will lead to a better balance of stakeholder views as we develop active travel plans.

“Groups corresponding directly with individual officers to share complex information is not a practical, effective or fair way to garner opinion and plan well.”

In addition to its £400,000 revenue development grant, Active Travel England also provided the council with a capital grant of £1.5m, which will be spent on upgrading the route along the A39 between Carhampton and Dunster.

While this scheme was publicly confirmed before Christmas 2023, no work has been carried out since elements of the existing verge along the A39 was removed in February and March – and no start date for the scheme is currently listed on the council’s official roadworks portal.

The council said it still intended to deliver this scheme and others across Somerset, and would communicate the timings in due course.

A spokesman said: “We do not anticipate a long-term problem in providing support for active travel groups and projects. We are currently under-resourced in this area but are in the process of rectifying this.

“We remain committed to schemes in the pipeline and are working hard to ensure these are delivered as planned.

“The development funding from Active Travel England has not yet been allocated by the council. We hope to have an update soon on this.”