Bath and North East Somerset Council has announced that work on the road system in Radstock to support the regeneration scheme will start on Monday, 21st July. Over £1 million was granted to support the upgrade of the road system in Radstock by central Government, to help people move around the town better, relieve congestion, and pave the way for new homes and jobs on the former railway land. Residents are understandably concerned that the work will cause delays, with the town coming to a standstill once before when major work to the sewers had to be carried out. Bath and North East Somerset Council has met local traders in the town to give them details of the work and a leaflet will be issued to all homes in the Radstock and Westfield areas in the next two weeks. The first few weeks work will initially include:
Creating a compound area for the work vehicles and equipment on the Norton Radstock Regeneration (NRR) land behind Fortescue Road.
Creating a temporary access from Frome Road to the NRR site. Work will then focus on constructing a new link road from Frome Road towards Victoria Hall. Frome Road will be open throughout this period, but there will be traffic lights in operation. NRR's development partner, Linden Homes, expect to start work in August on the first phase of development on the area to the south of Frome Road and Victoria Hall. This will provide seventy new homes, up to 282 sqm of retail floor space, 84 sqm for community use and a public car park. In addition, Wessex Water will start the final stage of essential flood relief work on August 4th and will close Fortescue Road to through traffic until November 30th. During this period The Street will be made two-way and bus stops will be temporarily moved, information about the changes to the bus stops will be made available in a leaflet to all local people and in the local media. Pedestrian access to Fortescue Road will be maintained at all times, to make sure Radstock remains open for business. The land next to Victoria Hall, owned by Norton Radstock Regeneration Co, which has until now been available as an unofficial car park, will close in August to allow Linden Homes to work on the new development. Additional parking is being made available at the Working Men's Club whilst contractors are on site. Some on-street parking will be maintained on The Street and existing car parks behind the Library and at Waterloo Road will continue to be available. Cllr Ben Stevens, Bath and North East Somerset Council's Cabinet Member for Sustainable Development, said: "This is an exciting project, putting huge investment into Radstock that will improve the roads, bring in new housing and jobs. "We are working closely with Wessex Water and Linden Homes to try to minimise disruption to local people and businesses – we will work with local traders throughout this project to ensure that people know Radstock town centre is open for business." The Council will be communicating more detailed information as work goes on – using the local media, the website: http://www.bathnes.gov.uk/regenradstock">www.bathnes.gov.uk/regenradstock, Twitter @bathnes and more.