Taunton footbridge could end up costing £2m to deliver

The government provided nearly £14m through its future high streets fund to deliver various improvements in Taunton town centre to create a new active travel route from the station to Vivary Park, via the Firepool and Coal Orchard regeneration sites.

Somerset Council has already allocated a sizeable portion of this grant (which was awarded in late-2020), with around £5m being spent on delivering the new boulevards through the Firepool site and an undisclosed sum being recently used to construct a new crossing on the A38 Upper High Street.

The council’s planning committee west approved plans in August to remove the existing River Tone footbridge (also known as the Morrison’s footbridge) and replace it with a wider bridge, allowing pedestrians and cyclists to cross simultaneously between either side of the river.

READ MORE: Council to consider replacement of Goodland Gardens footbridge

The council is now racing to appoint a contractor to build the bridge before the grant funding deadline of March 31, 2025 – and has not revealed how soon after this date building work will actually begin.

The existing bridge, which lies between the Morrisons store and the Brewhouse Theatre, currently links up with the National Cycle Network route 3, which runs along the north bank of the Tone and onto the Bridgwater and Taunton Canal.

Cyclists wishing to use the bridge to reach the theatre, Coal Orchard or the wider town centre currently have to dismount, since it is too narrow for pedestrians and cyclists to safely share the same space.

READ MORE: Taunton Town Centre footbridge decision due in spring 2025

Under the agreed proposals, the existing bridge will be removed and replaced with a new bridge which is four metres wide – meeting the Department for Transport’s guidelines for how much room is needed to allow pedestrians and cyclists to use the route at the same time (known as the LTN 120).

The existing ramp on the north bank will be replaced with steps, with a longer, shallower ramp being constructed on the other approach.

The council had previously proposed to construct a new bridge between Coal Orchard and the bandstand slightly downstream, closer to Somerset County Cricket Club; however, these plans were withdrawn in October 2023 following substantially negative feedback from local residents.

The council went out to tender for the construction of the bridge in mid-November, with the BidStats tendering website indicating that the project would be worth “between £1M and £2M” and that delivery could take place anywhere between January 2025 and November 2026.

The tender closed shortly before Christmas, with the council expecting to appoint the winning bidder in “early-2025”.

Under the terms of the future high streets fund, all contracts which involve the government grant must be in place and finalised by March 31, 2025 – otherwise the money will have to be returned to Whitehall.

Somerset Council has confirmed that work on the new bridge can begin after this date “as long as we are in contract in good time before the deadline”.

Around £600,000 from the remaining future high streets funding will be spent on the new bridge, with the remainder (up to £1.4m) coming from the community infrastructure levy (CIL) payments generated from housing developments across the Taunton area.

The council said it “did not have a date yet” for when the existing bridge would be removed.

When planning permission was granted, Councillor Norman Cavill requested that the existing bridge should be carefully removed and stored by the council, allowing it to be reinstalled at an appropriate location elsewhere on the river or the canal at a later date.

The council confirmed in early-September that it would not be workable to relocated the bridge to Goodlands Gardens, whose footbridge was removed in July following a lengthy closure.

When asked whether a suitable new location for the old bridge had been identified, officers simply responded: “Not yet.”

Following a public consultation in October, Taunton Town Council is expected to decide whether to push forward with a replacement bridge in Goodlands Gardens by the spring of 2025.