CYCLING campaigners in Somerset will have to take a different route to get new active travel schemes approved following staffing changes at Somerset Council.

The council is currently undergoing a transformation programme, with around 1,000 staff expected to lose their jobs by 2027 as departments are restructured and services are streamlined.

As part of this ongoing process, the council has lost prominent figures within its highways and transport team, with campaign groups claiming this has led to delays in supported active travel schemes being taken forward.

One project which had been seeking Somerset Council’s support is the Grand Western Greenway, which aims to deliver a car-free route between the Longforth Farm site in Wellington and Taunton railway station.

The council said it would be utilising the recently-created local community networks (LCNs) to progress future active travel schemes and that it remained committed to delivering schemes where funding was already in place.

In an email to active travel groups (seen by the Local Democracy Reporting Service), Sunita Mills, the council’s head of transportation, confirmed that the council would have to take a different tack following the departure of Sarah Ellwood, who served as its leading active travel technical officer until July.

Ms Mills said: “Due to ongoing organisational changes and a shift in how we will deliver active travel, we have reviewed our engagement approach with our councillors, delivery teams and planning teams.

“LCNs have become an effective way for local people to bring their thoughts, issues, and suggestions to elected members, and other key service providers.”

The LCN network was created to bring together Somerset Council division members with town and parish councils, voluntary organisations and other relevant bodies, with a view to delivering small-scale, hyper-local improvements.

Charles Biscoe, who has been spearheading the Grand Western Greenway project, lobbied the council’s active travel team to secure “a very small part” of a £400,000 revenue grant which was provided by Active Travel England to design new walking and cycling schemes across Somerset.

But despite an initial positive meeting, the council’s team ultimately refused to be involved with the project – leaving Mr Biscoe to approach the local town and parish councils to secure the £8,000 needed for the feasibility study.

He said: “We are puzzled by this as it seems so at odds with the council’s objectives.”

Matthew Prince, the council’s service manager for transport policy, had told Mr Biscoe that his staff were “exceptionally busy with a number of projects” and staff changes meant that he had “no resource to add any additional workloads to the programme”.

In addition to its £400,000 revenue development grant, Active Travel England also provided the council with a capital grant of £1.5m, which will be spent on upgrading the the A39 between Carhampton and Dunster.

This scheme was publicly confirmed before Christmas 2023, but no work has been carried out and no start date for the scheme is currently listed on the council’s official roadworks portal.

The council said it still intended to deliver this scheme and others across Somerset.