Green light given to fund traffic plans in Yeovil

A MULTI-MILLION pound scheme aimed at improving traffic flow in a problem area of Yeovil has been given the green light.

The Local Transport Board – the new body charged with funding major schemes in the Dorset and Somerset area – has given the go-ahead in principle to spending £6.49-million on easing traffic congestion on the western side of Yeovil.

The proposed scheme for Yeovil’s western corridor is to improve key junctions in that area along with improvements to pedestrian links 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 roundabout with the inclusion of pedestrian/cycle facilities.

2: Improvements to the Preston Road (Asda) 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.

The Local Transport Boards are part of a new system set up in conjunction with local transport authorities, Local Enterprise Partnerships and the Department for Transport to allocate major scheme funding at a local level for road, rail, pedestrian and cycle schemes up to £15m.

A total of £27.1m of funding over four years has been allocated to the Heart of the South West Local Transport Board – considerably less than the £40m figure it had previously been suggested.

PHOTOS - ABOVE: Cllr Harvey Siggs, left, of Somerset County Council, and Cllr Ric Pallister, right, of South Somerset District Council.

Somerset County Council’s Cllr Harvey Siggs, a member of the Local Transport Board, said today (August 20, 2013) they were “deeply disappointed” by the department’s decision to cut the funds.

But he said the money they had been given for five schemes across Somerset and Devon would “promote growth, alleviate congestion and encourage inward investment.”

Leader of South Somerset District Council, Cllr Ric Pallister, said back in March that the Yeovil scheme would really help to sort out the existing problems on the western corridor of the town and help to speed up planned residential and business developments on the Brimsmore key site, Lufton 2000 and BunfordPark.

A key part of the scheme – possibly the cornerstone of sorting out the traffic problems – is the improvement to the Preston Road roundabout by the Asda supermarket. It is believed that that alone could cost around £1.25m.  

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