WELL into October, it’s Saturday, a fine sunny morning with a wedding to go to at south Chard.

Ideal weather to get the motorbike out of the garage and give it a run.
All going well.

Over the hills via Combe St Nicholas then on to the wedding with a reception in Perry Street village hall.

The return journey by way of Ilminster not a good idea due to heavy traffic, A358 busy most of the way.

At Blackbrook it was at a standstill.

Something must be done to find a solution to this on going saga that blights the area.

The contours of the surrounding ground gives way to the idea of flyovers.

The first could be around the back of the park and ride at Blackbrook, linking in to a one-way greenway road out onto the Minehead road.

The new as yet unused NIDR should be one way into town.

A new junction at Walford cross could include a flyover linked road with work units infilling vacant ground.

This new junction would not only service the completed building developments but would serve as a main artery for further projects.

One may wonder why I am writing about a journey to a wedding.

At that time the early 1960s, I was delivering wedding telegrams as a telegram boy.

Bearing in mind this was prior to the construction of the M5. Also the main line to Minehead was axed.

Like the traffic, Taunton has been in the slow lane for far to long.

We are now into a salvage operation of putting past missed opportunities behind us and thinking “Taunton First”.

MIKE WILLIAMS
Taunton