This report draws on the following components of the Community Appraisal:
"(Wedmore is) a very pretty village, but spoilt by traffic" (YP comment)
The above quote sums up the way the people of the Isle of Wedmore feel about their lives and community. They love the village, but feel utterly frustrated by its appalling traffic problem and the apparent reluctance of local government/highways authorities to remedy it."
"It is vital for the quality of life we all enjoy to be sustained that the enforcement of speed and heavy transport through our villages is rigorously undertaken by the authorities."
"About time something was done about the traffic problem in Wedmore. It would seem that nothing is going to be done until someone is killed."
"The main drawback to living in Wedmore is the high volume of traffic. In the 18 years I have lived here nothing has been done to improve conditions. Large lorries and cars regularly park and drive on pavements. Vehicles have to drive on wrong side of road (due to parked vehicles) when travelling round church to Burnham or round by village hall on Cheddar Road."
"The traffic is a growing problem, not only in volume but speed and size. It is quite clear that it takes several fatal accidents before the situation is examined. Wedmore is used as a roundabout for, especially, motorway traffic on route to Wells. It should be treated as priority as it is the residents principal concern. The village will suffer if no action is taken."
"The traffic and the parking problems need to be resolved ASAP before anyone is killed. I have been brushed by vehicles mounting the pavements in Wedmore because of parked cars and two-way traffic!!"
The frustration with ‘the authorities’ and their lack of action over the road situation in Wedmore is palpable, and frequently becomes rage!
Of the 516 spontaneous comments returned in the yellow pages, 222 (43%) were about the traffic situation. The next-largest topic - housing - only mustered 6% of all comments. Traffic is by far and away the dominant problem parishioners want to see resolved, for the vast majority it is the only problem.
Problems: (group showing highest level of agreement shown in bold)
| Rank | Problem | % |
% concerned living on B roads |
% concerned with children |
% concerned aged 65+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Parked cars on blind bends and hill-brows | 90% |
90% |
`90% |
89% |
| 2 | Speeding | 89% |
93% |
92% |
87% |
| 3 | HGVs | 88% |
92% |
88% |
89% |
| 4 | Parked cars causing congestion | 80% |
81% |
81% |
83% |
| 5 | Lack of pavements | 79% |
83% |
87% |
81% |
| 6 | Traffic fumes | 61% |
69% |
58% |
60% |
| 7 | Traffic noise pollution | 60% |
66% |
57% |
61% |
| 8 | Damage to buildings | 58% |
63% |
52% |
56% |
| 9 | Heavy traffic morning and evening | 57% |
65% |
57% |
57% |
| 10 | Lack of safe cycle paths | 56% |
54% |
73% |
43% |
| 11 | Vibration | 51% |
59% |
57% |
50% |
Although only 34% of parishioners live on one of the two busy B roads that intersect in Wedmore, up to 90% of the whole population are concerned about the village’s traffic problems. There is great solidarity between all sections of the community on the three ‘big’ issues requiring attention:
Naturally, those living on the B3139 and B3151 are in the front line of traffic problems, and this is reflected in their higher scores of concern for traffic fumes, traffic noise pollution, damage to buildings, heavy traffic morning and evening, and vibration. However, on all these items, a majority of the entire community is currently suffering, no matter where they live in the parish.
Parents of children, not surprisingly, score highest for concern over road safety issues, particularly speeding, and the lack of pavements and safe cycle paths.
Solutions (group showing highest level of agreement shown in bold)
| Rank | Solution | %all agree |
% agree living on B roads |
% agree with children |
% agree aged 65+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | HGV weight restriction | 77% |
85% |
80% |
77% |
| =2 | Ban all HGVs, except access | 75% |
80% |
75% |
77% |
| =2 | Ban HGV trailers | 75% |
80% |
78% |
73% |
| 4 | Double yellow lines on blind bends and hill-brows | 70% |
72% |
75% |
64% |
| 5 | Cycle paths between villages | 67% |
65% |
77% |
56% |
| =6 | 20mph speed limit in centre of Wedmore | 64% |
69% |
73% |
65% |
| =6 | One way system | 64% |
57% |
62% |
72% |
| 8 | Footpath between Blackford and Wedmore | 62% |
59% |
72% |
54% |
| 9 | 40mph limit Wedmore to Clewer | 57% |
59% |
57% |
61% |
| 10 | 40mph limit Wedmore to Blackford | 56% |
58% |
58% |
64% |
| 11 | Traffic calming in Wedmore and Theale | 54% |
63% |
67% |
50% |
| 12 | Disabled parking | 53% |
53% |
49% |
59% |
| 13 | Double yellow lines in Wedmore centre | 28% |
28% |
29% |
32% |
Here the urgent need for some sort of HGV ban through the villages is shown very clearly, with these solutions being the top three preferred solutions for everyone, but most especially those living on the B roads, and parents of children.
Wedmorians are absolutely clear about double yellow lines - they do want them on blind bends and hill-brows, but they definitely do not want them in the centre of Wedmore. The need for double yellow lines on corners and hills is seen as urgent because of the road safety implications:
"Vehicles have to drive on wrong side of road (due to parked vehicles) when travelling round church to Burnham or round by village hall on Cheddar Road."
"Vehicles parking on the Cheddar Road by the Village Hall cause a serious hazard as they force cars on to the wrong side of the road on a blind bend."
"Parking on the hill brow on the B3139 Wells to Wedmore is very dangerous as vision is restricted."
"The bend near the Village Hall is being increasingly used for dangerous parking forcing vehicles into the centre of the road on a blind corner. Why no restrictive lining to overcome it?"
"Problem of cars parked on the hilltop by Combe Batch that will at some point lead to a serious accident."
"I choose to shop in Wells and avoid Wedmore as much as possible (other than the Surgery and Chemist) due to the appallingly inconsiderate parking and the danger caused by it especially outside Stones the Bakers."
"No parking at Bakers as this is really dangerous"
"I would like to see all parking stopped outside Wedmore Village Hall especially on the bend,"
"Prevent parking at Village Hall on Borough adjacent to this bend, which forces motorists out into middle of road in the face of oncoming traffic."
Villagers know, from bitter daily experience, exactly where the strips of double yellow lines should be placed, to improve road safety. Many are also fairly certain that the solution to this problem lies in the provision of a public car park near the centre of the village:
"A car park outside the village (within walking distance) would help."
"The parking in Wedmore is atrocious just to shop for a bottle of milk or a loaf of bread. Please hurry up with a car park to get the all day parking off the street."
"Most of the shops are lock-ups which mean shopkeepers are parking all day outside their shops. I can think of one where there are at least five cars each day from Burnham and Weston-Super-Mare."
"Wedmore needs a decent car park. This would save a lot of the unnecessary street parking which causes heavy congestion!"
Fortunately, the Parish Council has recently acquired a suitable piece of land to the east of the village for a public car park. Below is a statement from the Parish Council on the likely timing and policy for this car park.
Many people offered less obvious solutions to the problems, often ‘borrowed’ from other places where they have been seen to work:
"In Othery the speed cameras work brilliantly without causing visual/physical hideousness to the village."
"I think Wedmore should have a by-pass!!"
"The school coaches were not mentioned on the survey, but if these were extended, possibly by parental sponsorship, to include children living nearer to the schools, there would be less traffic congestion/pollution."
"Concerned about traffic and road safety within Cocklake – these are two-fold:
i) Children waiting for school bus stand at busy junction on Wedmore/Cheddar/Cocklake Road – proper standing shelter should be provided.
ii) Traffic calming and ‘tonnage’ weight for vehicles travelling through Cocklake to Draycott. Generally attention to other villages within the Isle of Wedmore and not just focus on Wedmore village."
"As a resident of Blackford, with two children going to Hugh Sexey Middle School, I am very concerned about the traffic speeding through the village particularly on the main road, B3139, High Street and Redmans Hill. I would like to see traffic calming measures introduced so that children can cross the roads more safely particularly outside HSM School and the Sexeys Arms Inn."
"The huge money that was spent on an impassable quagmire-of-a-footpath in Theale would have been better spent on traffic calming."
"More prominent speed limit signs needed in Theale to slow traffic."
"I would like measures to be taken to prevent Bagley being used s a ‘rat run’, cars are driven through the hamlet much too quickly. There will be a serious accident one day."
Two focus groups were conducted amongst boys and girls aged 12-16; and the children at Wedmore First School were given a self-completion questionnaire with three questions: what’s the worst thing about your village? what’s the best? What would you change?
Teenagers
Those living in Wedmore found it "a bit busy", particularly in respect of the traffic.
"When I was younger it used to be a lot quieter, and I used to be able to walk from my house down to the village without a car going past, and now it’s really busy and there’s a lot more houses here than there used to be. It ruins the countryside. Where I live there used to be fields all around". (14 yr old boy)
"It’s in danger of losing what it stands for. It’s in danger of becoming commercialised, and stuff like that". (13 yr old boy)
All the boys used their bicycles extensively - notably the Blackford boys to get to Wedmore to buy sweets or to skateboard at the car park. The road between Blackford and Wedmore was seen as extremely dangerous, and there was much regret over the fact that one or two landowners had prevented the creation of a continuous, off-road cycle track to join the two villages. In particular, it was noted that crossing the road at Sexey’s School was extremely dangerous and it sometimes took ages to get across it safely - "they should put a crossing there, or have a lollipop lady."(13 yr old boy).
The girls thought that Wedmore was "very pretty", because of the adjacent farmland, particularly in contrast with Cheddar which they found ugly, urbanised and too big. Those who had moved here from city or town environments thought Wedmore was quiet, with little traffic at night, and street lighting not too bright. The preservation of surrounding farmland was unanimously supported:
"We need to keep the farming. It’s good for Wedmore, and there’s less and less of it now" (13 yr old girl, farming family lived here for generations)
Children aged 5-9
The single biggest issue of concern to these children is identical to that of the adults, namely traffic/roads/pavements. In fact, when asked to state the worst thing about living in their village, 12 of the 28 mentioned this - the exact same proportion (43%) as the mentions received in the adults’ ‘Yellow Pages’ comments. The same subject also came top of the children’s list of things they wanted changed, with nine comments in all.
There is an underlying frustration, based on the fact that they are dependent on their parents to drive them everywhere, either because they live too far out of Wedmore, or the roads/pavements are too dangerous for them to walk or cycle. In this respect, again, they echo the complaints made by adults in their Comments added to the main survey. It seems that nobody in the Isle of Wedmore likes to drive when they could walk or cycle, but road conditions leave them no choice.
The children's’ verbatim comments - What’s the worst thing about your village?
8 |
Wedmore | All the cars |
8 |
Blackford | There is no pavement |
Nearly 8 |
Wedmore | The really really bad traffic jams |
8 |
Wedmore | There’s lots of traffic |
5 |
Wedmore | Some roads are narrow and are hard to walk down or ride my bicycle when cars go past. |
6 |
Wedmore | There are too many cars and lorries |
8 |
Theale | There’s no path to walk on |
8 |
Wedmore | Traffic |
6 |
N/A | The lorries |
6 |
Wedmore | The narrow pavement in places |
9 |
Wedmore | The traffic |
6 |
Cocklake | I can’t walk to school |
7 |
Blackford | Not having a shop nearby that I can walk to. So we always have to drive. |
6 |
Wedmore | The cars go too fast |
Elderly ladies are particularly concerned about speed, and the difficulty they have crossing.
Elderly men offered a different range of solutions, focusing on speed control techniques, although there was some pessimism over the potential efficacy of any of them.
"I’ve got quite strong views on the traffic side, but certainly as far as Pilcorn Street goes, it’s no good putting up signs saying 20 miles an hour because nobody takes any notice of them"
"I know that a lot of people in Wedmore don’t like bumps because they say it creates a noise as traffic keeps hitting the bumps, but it certainly stops the traffic going at speed"
"The pinch points in Mark definitely have a slowing down effect."
"With these modern cars which can go from 0 to 50 in 50 yards, it doesn’t really slow people down; they just think I’ll stop here for 20 seconds, that’s the sort of attitude the older generation think. My own opinion, I see no point"
"…and another terrible thing is the way people will insist on parking on the corners."
There were 11 specific complaints made (2% of all comments) about the poor maintenance of the public footpaths around the Isle of Wedmore. We have brought these to the attention of the Parish Council to deal with, since they have a committee with specific responsibility for signage and upkeep of footpaths. If anyone wants to discuss their footpath complaints in detail, please contact the Wedmore Parish Council direct.
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