Safe walking route from new homes to Clarks Village finished

Somerset Council began work in early-January on four months of roadworks on the A39 Westway in Street, with traffic lights at several key junctions through the village being replaced.

In addition to these upgrades and significant resurfacing, the council's contract Octavius constructed a new shared use active travel link between the Farm Road underpass and the Street roundabout (where the A39 meets the B3151 Somerton Road).

The completion of this walking and cycling link means that residents of 33 new low-cost homes on Portland Road will find it easier to access to Clarks Village, local services or on towards Glastonbury without relying on the private car.

Aster Housing (which is based in Devizes in Wiltshire) intends to deliver the new homes on land at the corner of Portland Road and Cemetery Lane, which was allocated for a minimum of 32 homes within the Mendip Local Plan Part II.

The council's planning committee east (which handles major applications within the former Mendip area) green-lit the plans in June 2025, but the legal agreements between the council and Aster were only signed off in late-March.

Since this vote, the same committee had approved outline plans for a further 65 homes on Moorland Road, a short distance from the Aster site - with 20 of these homes being affordable.

Councillor Liz Leyshon, who represents the Street division, stated in early-April that she was "really hopeful we'll have spades in the ground very soon" at the Aster site.

She added: "Every time I walk down the high street, I am asked, particularly by young people, when there will be housing in Street that they can actually afford, either to rent or to buy."

Both the Portland Road and Moorland Road residents will be able to access the A39 Westway (which bisects the village) using the existing footpaths through the Woods Batch green space and along Grange Road.

From there, they can use the existing Farm Road underpass to link up directly with the new active travel link near Barn Close, which leads directly to the main entrance of Clarks Village.

The wide, smooth path currently extends to crossings over Somerton Road, linking up with the existing but narrow footpath along the A39 The Causeway, leading over the River Brue into Glastonbury.

Ms Leyshon said she would be pushing for improvements to this route to make it easier to travel between the two settlements.

Posting on her official Facebook page on Saturday (May 9), she said: "Thanks to everyone who takes time to message and to chat on my daily walks - it's really good to see so many people using the new path.

"I'm spending a lot of time now on how we can improve the next bit of the path between the big roundabout and Pomparles Bridge - it's a really busy path and nowhere near wide enough."