"Build our bypass!" - plans to construct new road in Banwell could go through this week
Nearly 100 years after a Banwell local floated the idea, a brand-new bypass could finally become a reality
If you have ever driven from Weston-super-Mare towards Cheddar, Bath, or the Mendips then you will know Banwell.
The busy A371 runs straight through the village, narrowing down to a tiny street — with only enough space for a single car to get through at one point — leaving cars and lorries queueing through the village.
Drivers sat in that queue on Thursday March 9 had slightly a different view of the village to usual, with locals lining the sides of the roads with placards cheering: “Build our bypass!”
Banwell local Phil Baird said that the idea of building a bypass around the village to ease its traffic problem had first been floated in 1927. He added: “We have been hoping for the bypass ever since.”
Now, nearly 100 years later, plans to build the Banwell bypass could be given planning permission.
With North Somerset Council’s planning committee meeting on Wednesday March 15 to decide the application, many people in the village were out on the street to show their support for the plans.
As well as placards, people brought shovels to show they were ready to start the digging, and pots and pans to make some noise, although they could barely be heard above the sound of the constant stream of traffic tooting their horns in support— or perhaps in frustration at the traffic.
“We are as close as we have ever been now to getting approval to the bypass,” organiser Steve Voller told the crowd of villagers as they assembled.
He said: “It’s ridiculous we have got an A road going through a small village. Even worse than that, it has to queue getting through the narrows.”
“The narrows” is what locals call the point next to the village bakery where the road becomes a single track and traffic has to wait for anyone driving the other way to squeeze between the cottages.
Sue, who carried a “Beeep for Banwell!” sign, said: “We live right at the narrows, so our windows shake with the lorries coming though.”
Queues can stretch back from the narrows through the village. Mr Voller said: “It’s taking people 35 minutes on Monday to go from the village boundary to the primary school. It should take minutes.”
Another Banwell local Stuart Martin warned: “The emergency services can’t get through this village very quickly.
“The other morning, an ambulance was coming through here and the other cars were forced up on the pavement so it could get through.”
But the issues go beyond the queues and the narrows, with a further problem of cars racing off at speed when they are through the bottleneck.
One person who lives just up the hill from the narrows said: “I can’t reverse out of my drive without feeling like I’m going to get smashed into.”
Carmino Dagostino is the landlord at the village pub, the Bell Inn. He said: “We have had our pub sign hit, the lamp hit off.”
He added: “They literally just crash into the building.”
But the traffic has hit his business in more way than one. He said: “We can’t open in the day because there’s too many lorries and cars on the pavements, so people are too afraid to use the pavement.”
Jackie Lyndon lives in the village and used to work at the pub. But even though it is only nearby, it was not an easy commute. She said: “You take your life in your hands because there’s no pavement.”
Banwell’s pavements being too thin — or, such as on Ms Lyndon’s walk, not there at all — is especially a worry for parents.
Pauline Powell used to be a lollipop lady in Banwell twenty years ago. She said: “I did it for 13 years and the traffic was bad back then. You had to be so careful with children crossing the road.”
But she added: “It’s built up year by year.”
Christine Harwood and her daughter Eleanor joined the protest while walking to pick her other daughter up from school, which is not an easy school run in the village.
She said: “If you walk on that side, its a blind spot and you can’t see cars coming around the corner. If you walk on this side they come up on the pavement because there’s no space.”
Another Banwell mum, Rebecca, was caught in a scary situation when walking with her children on a pavement too narrow for her pushchair, as a double decker bus came down the street. She said: “We ended up squashed between the bus and the wall.”
She added: “After that the children didn’t want to go to school.”
Henry, 5, remembered seeing one driver mount the kerb. He said: “He was driving on the pavement and smashed a plant pot.”
William, 7, had a message for the council about building the bypass. He said: “Get on with it.”
Maureen Woolley carried a giant placard reading “NSC no more delays” and said: “We thought, about time for us to step up and be counted.”
She added: “I don’t know another village that’s as bad as this. We get abuse from the drivers.””
The council is pressing ahead with its plans for the bypass and has passed compulsory purchase orders for the land needed, although these will need to go through public inquiries before the land can be taken over.
There has also been opposition to the plans from some nearby villages such as Churchill, Sandford, and Winscombe. Last year, Churchill Parish Council wrote to the Prime Minister last year to ask him to block the bypass. They fear that the bypass will lead to congestion in their villages.
Sue had choice words for them, saying: “Some of the more affluent surrounding villages are happy for Banwell to be the human shield.”
But despite the tension with nearby villages and the constant stream of traffic, the village spirit in Banwell is as strong as ever.
Armed with a metal pot and a wooden spoon, Jane Forsythe was one of the locals making some noise for the bypass on Thursday. She said: “We only moved here four months ago; I’ve never had so much fun!”
North Somerset Council’s planning committee will meet in the New Council Chamber in Weston-super-Mare Town Hall at 2.30pm on Wednesday March 15 to decide whether to grant planning permission for the Banwell bypass.