Sharpham Road in Glastonbury won't be adopted by Somerset Council

Taylor Wimpey began construction on the Dunstan Park estate at the northern edge of Glastonbury in 2008, completing the last of the 250 dwellings located off Wells Road in 2017.

Sharpham Road, which runs through the development, was designed by the developer to bend in “appropriate places” to encourage slower traffic speeds.

Local residents have called for further traffic calming measures to be implemented on the road (which is still owned by the developer) to prevent children from being hurt.

Somerset Council has said it is unable to adopt Sharpham Road due to legal restrictions and a lack of funding – meaning that any changes to the road will have to be funded by the town council or the residents.

Glastonbury resident Amanda Millar raised the issue in writing before the full council met in Bridgwater on May 24.

She said in her written statement: “Residents who live on the Dunstan Park estate in Glastonbury are concerned about the lack of traffic calming measures and potential danger to children playing on or near any of the roads into the estate.

“It is a relatively new estate just off Wells Road and around the corner from West Mendip hospital. Taylor Wimpey built it and has been responsible for its maintenance.

Sharpham Road in Glastonbury. (Image: Daniel Mumby)

“Residents have written to the developer a number of times, asking what are they are doing about transferring the responsibility to the council’s highways department and when will it ever happen.

“They always reply that it takes a long time to do all the checks properly before the transfer is done. But the first section of the busy main road into estate was originally built 14 years ago.”

Ms Millar said that residents were keen for Sharpham Road to be upgraded or altered to reduce vehicle speeds and thereby “avoid a child being injured or fatally wounded as soon as possible”

She added: “Some residents have decided to take matters into their own hands regarding speed limits and other measures.

“When new people, including drivers of emergency vehicles, come into the estate via Sharpham Road they don’t know the layout of the estate.

“They drive into the narrowest road of all, and won’t be able to see around the sharp corner until it is too late.

“No matter how slowly they drive, they will meet oncoming traffic within a very limited space, with cars parked either side of this narrow road.

“Emergency vehicles, paramedics, have been delayed due to the preponderance of parked cars everywhere blocking the corner and not able to reach critically ill patients quickly enough.

“Residents call this Chaos Road. We would like traffic calming measures put in place as soon as possible.”

New roads which are built as part of housing developments remain the property of the developer until they are adopted by the highway authority – after which the council becomes responsible for their upkeep.

Somerset Council said that Sharpham Road could not be adopted at present because Taylor Wimpey had not fulfilled all its legal obligations surrounding the Dunstan Park estate.

A spokesman said: “We are sorry to learn about your concerns regarding traffic on this new development. While this development is substantially complete, the developer has not yet satisfied all obligations to secure highway authority adoption and therefore it does not yet form part of the maintainable public highway asset – this includes Sharpham Road.

“If residents want speed reducing measures, then they could canvass the developer directly – although they are only obligated to complete the works in accordance with the planning consent, which they have done.”

More worryingly, the council said that adopting Sharpham Road would not be an immediate priority due to the existing strains on its budget.

The spokesman added: “We look after more than 6,600km of roads and we have to carefully prioritise improvement works in line with the limited budgets available, which involves making some very difficult decisions to make sure our resources are directed where there is clear evidence of significant problems or incidents.

“Fortunately, there have been no recorded personal injury collisions within this development, which does mean that even if these roads were public highway this area would not be a priority for us in terms of funding, and the only mechanism of taking any scheme forward would be if the town council or community were able to fully fund it.”

Taylor Wimpey said that the road could not be adopted by the council until Wessex Water had officially adopted the new sewers constructed as part of the development.

A spokesman said: “We understand the concerns of residents at the Dunstan Park development around road adoptions and highway safety.

“Health and safety is our priority. The development was built in line with the approved plans which accorded fully with planning policy, and the road network was designed to prioritise the safety of all users by reducing vehicle speeds.

“We are working closely with stakeholders including Somerset Council and Wessex Water to complete the adoption of the roads and sewers as quickly as possible.”