Plans to get Yeovil moving and ease traffic problems

HOPES are high that Yeovil might be on the verge of gaining a £5m windfall which could help to ease horrendous traffic problems in a busy part of the town.A bid for cash has been made to the Department for Transport’s Local Pinch Point Fund to help with schemes to ease the pressure on the roads in the western area of Yeovil around Bunford and Houndstone.

The proposed scheme for the Yeovil Western Corridor is to improve key junctions in that area, along with improvements to pedestrian and cycleways.

Many people will know that the area becomes gridlocked with traffic at peak times of the day  - especially by the Asda roundabout at the junction of Bunford, Preston Road and Houndstone.

The plans include the following aspects:

1: Signalisation of Bluebell Road roundabout with the inclusion of pedestrian/cycle facilities.

2: Improvements to the Preston Road roundabout incorporating a pedestrian/cycle crossing.

3: Improvements to the Copse Road/Western Avenue junction.

4: Conversion of the Westland roundabout to a signalised ‘throughabout’ junction.

5: Improvements to Bunford roundabout.

6: Cycle/pedestrian links along the west side of Western Avenue.

7: Pedestrian/cycle links between Western Avenue and the employment area to the west.

8: Pedestrian/cycle links between proposed residential developments in the north and Preston Road and between the residential developments and Western Avenue.

Leader of South Somerset District Council, Cllr Ric Pallister, said if the bid for funding was successful it would really help to sort out the problems on the western corridor of Yeovil.

Sorting out the transport difficulties in that area would also help to speed up the planned residential and business land developments on the Brimsmore key site, Lufton, Lufton 2000 and Bunford Park.

A key element of the scheme – possibly the cornerstone of alleviating the problems – is the improvement to the Preston Road roundabout, known locally as the Asda roundabout, which comes to a grinding halt at many times of the dya.

Plans to improve that roundabout have been estimated to cost in the region of £1.25m and, if everything goes according to plan, work could get underway in November 2014.

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