WORK to deliver a £9m regeneration scheme in the heart of Bridgwater town centre will officially get under way in the autumn.

The Celebration Mile will run from the Northgate Docks through the town centre to Bridgwater railway station on Wellington Road, tying together numerous projects within the £23.2m Bridgwater town deal.

A total of £9m has been allocated from the town deal to deliver three key sections of the route, with planning permission being granted by Sedgemoor District Council in the summer and autumn of 2022.

Somerset Council has now confirmed that construction will officially begin in October – meaning the town centre will be spared further roadworks during the summer holidays.

The route is intended to provide traffic-free connections between the various regeneration efforts in the town – including the £5.2m regeneration of the Northgate Docks (as part of the town deal), the Northgate Yard cinema and commercial units (delivered by the district council before its abolition) and the new health and social care academy on Salmon Parade (being funded by £19.3m from the government’s levelling up fund).

The project has been a long-standing ambition of local councillors since 2012, and is designed to make the town centre more accessible for pedestrians, cyclists and shoppers with more limited mobility.

The three phases being targeted by the town deal are:

  • Improving Angel Crescent, with new business units and an improved toucan crossing over Mount Street (approved in November 2022)
  • Pedestrianising the eastern end of Clare Street, including its connections with Castle Moat, King Square and York Building (approved in July 2022)
  • Turning Eastover into a one-way street with cycling lanes, with similar changes to East Quay, Salmon Parade and the Town Bridge (approved in September 2022)

The link between Angel Crescent and the Northgate Docks, via the Brewery Fields, was included in the Northgate Yard regeneration scheme which opened in late-October 2022.

The crossing over the A38 Broadway being delivered as part of the unitary council’s county-wide upgrade of traffic signals, with the £1.7m scheme due to be completed by the end of June.

The council said the work would “improve the streets hugely” and “help make Eastover a more successful trading environment”.

A spokesman said: “Currently the project team is preparing technical and design work ready to release information for tender procurement to secure a contractor to deliver the works.

“At this stage, we don’t have any detail on the phasing of the works and will work with the selected contractor to develop this plan.

“We will also be preparing a communication strategy to allow effective dissemination of information, in particular to traders in Eastover, Angel Place and Clare Street.

“It is inevitable that there will be disruption, but by working with the contractor and traders we will keep this to a minimum and ensure that advance warning of different stages are effectively communicated.”

The council intends to go out to tender for the project by the end of June, with tenders being received by August and its chosen contractor being appointed in September.

Work will commence in October, with further information about the phasing of the different sections being published later in the year via the Travel Somerset roadworks portal.