Connecting Staplegrove housing with Taunton town centre

The Staplegrove urban extension site lies at the north-western edge of Somerset’s county town, between the A358 Pen Elm and Taunton Road.

Efforts to develop the site to deliver 1628 new homes have been stymied for many years with progress being delayed by viability issues and the ongoing phosphates crisis, which is holding up the delivery of around 12000 homes across the county.

Following fresh negotiations with the developers, Somerset Council will demand that £3.2m be provided to deliver walking and cycling connections from the new homes, which will link up with the existing routes into the town centre.

Here’s everything you need to know about this long-running saga:

What is planned at the Staplegrove urban extension?

Staplegrove is one of three urban extensions, or garden communities, which were identified more than a decade ago for delivering the bulk of Taunton’s new housing in the coming years.

The other two locations are the Monkton Heathfield urban extension where phase one has largely been built out and the Comeytrowe urban extension, also known as Orchard Grove where construction on the western neighbourhood is under way.

The Staplegrove site has been split into two elements: Staplegrove West, comprising 713 homes and employment land (being delivered by Bloor Homes South West) and Staplegrove East, comprising 915 homes and a primary school (put forward by Ptarmigan Staplegrove Ltd.)

The two sites will be connected by a spine road which will run from a new T-junction on the A358 Staplegrove Road, east of the Silk Mills roundabout, to a new roundabout onto Taunton Road, where it turns into Kingston Road.

Why has it taken so long for anything to happen?

Taunton Deane Borough Council’s planning committee voted to approve planning applications for both elements of the Staplegrove site all the way back in October 2017.

However, the legal agreements between the council and the developers were not signed off before the Dutch N court ruling and the resulting legal advice from Natural England, which was issued in August 2020.

As a result of this legal advice, anyone seeking to build homes within the River Tone catchment area must provide additional mitigation to prevent any net increase in phosphates on the Somerset Levels and Moors.

In a bid to kick-start the Staplegrove West site, Somerset West and Taunton Council approved plans to create new wetlands in villages to the north of Taunton in September 2022.

However, these would only provide enough mitigation for the first phase of the western site – revised plans for which were approved in November 2022.

To unlock the remainder of the site, additional mitigation must be secured through upgrades of local waste waste treatment plants, further wetlands or the purchase of phosphate credits (whereby agricultural land in the same catchment is taken out of active use for a period of time).

Any phosphate mitigation must be in place before a single brick can be laid.

Wessex Water recently entered into an agreement with Somerset Council to implement “stretch permits” at its Langport, Taunton and Wells treatment plans, which will see additional phosphates removed on top of new standards set under the Levelling Up and Regeneration Act 2023 (known as LURA).

Wessex Water also indicated in May 2023 that it would need to upgrade “inadequate” sewers near the Staplegrove site before work could begin though the company has not confirmed whether this has been carried out.

Is there any government funding to help speed things up?

The then-Conservative government indicated in January 2019 that it would provide up to £14.2m to unlock the Staplegrove site, provided through its housing infrastructure fund (HIF).

Originally, all of the £14.2m was expected to be spent on the spine road – but Somerset County Council threw a spanner in the works in January 2020 by asking that £9.6m of this grant should go towards the primary school.

Somerset West and Taunton Council responded in October 2020 by setting aside £4m for the school from the community infrastructure levy (CIL) – money which is sourced from other housing developments across the county and which can be pooled to deliver major infrastructure projects, such as schools, roads and doctors’ surgeries.

The HIF funding currently has to be spent in its entirety by December 31, 2024  – but Somerset Council is confident of securing an extension from Homes England (which manages these grants on the government’s behalf).

If either a HIF extension cannot be secured or new grants are not forthcoming, it could lead to a full-blown viability assessment of the entire development.

How will residents access local facilities?

Currently there are limited pavements or cycle lanes along the A358 Staplegrove Road itself – but you don’t have to go too far afield to find such infrastructure already in place.

There are shared pedestrian and cycle paths running south along the A3065 Silk Mills Lane, providing a connection to the eponymous park and ride facility.

The Taunton local cycling and walking infrastructure plan (LCWIP), which was published by Somerset County Council in early 2022, includes aspirations for new walking and cycling links between the Staplegrove urban extension and Taunton town centre.

These links will form part of the proposed ‘green route’, which will eventually run from Norton Fitzwarren to the Nexus 25 business park planned near junction 25 of the M5.

Somerset West and Taunton Council subsequently identified several routes near the Staplegrove site which should be prioritised once planning permission had been granted, in line with the Taunton Garden Town vision.

Two of the routes singled out would provide connections from the Staplegrove site:

• Silk Mills Lane to Bindon Road (known as Route 1)
• Staplegrove East to Taunton railway station via Clifford Avenue (known as Route 3)

A spokesman for Somerset Council said: “The former district council undertook a project to better connect the three garden communities on the periphery of the town to key destinations including the town centre, railway station, schools and colleges and areas of employment.

How have local campaigners reacted to this?

The Taunton Area Cycling Campaign (TACC) has been consulted throughout the planning process on new walking and cycling connections from the Staplegrove site.

TACC members met with senior planning officers November 15 and have broadly welcomed the council’s approach.

“This will enable the design and implementation of connecting routes from the urban extension to Taunton, including the Clifford Ave route and the Bindon Road link," said TACC chairman Mike Ginger . “The travel behaviour and mode choice of people moving into the new houses will be largely shaped by travel options at the outset, he added, warning that if only car-based options are available, car dependency can be guaranteed.

What happens next?

Bloor Homes South West applied in December 2023 to amend its plans for the Staplegrove West site – specifically requesting that the new school be pushed back until 575 homes had been delivered, citing falling birth rates in the local area.

The council’s planning committee west is expected to make a decision on these proposals at its final meeting before Christmas, which will be held in Taunton on December 17.