Listening to Croscombe: What a Village’s Road Works Reveal About Resident Communication

A first-hand account recorded by Claire Sully, local councillor and Croscombe resident

A Note from Claire Sully

I am a local councillor, and I live in the village of Croscombe. Like many of my neighbours, I have experienced the road works on Long Street and the A361 corridor between Shepton Mallet and Wells firsthand, and shared the frustrations that came with them.

I wanted to capture what that experience has actually been like for the people who live here. Much of what passes happens through emails back and forth with service officers — and important details, concerns and feelings can get lost along the way. I hope that by putting this on record properly, we can use it constructively at Somerset Council: to improve how highway works are communicated, managed and completed in communities like ours.

In this piece I am not writing as a councillor. I am writing as a resident. My neighbour Terri shares her experience below, in her own words.

— Claire Sully, Croscombe

Terri’s Account

Phase One: The Night Works — February

The first phase of disruption came in February, when the road was closed for eleven days. I run The Cross — an award-winning bed and breakfast here in Croscombe — and during those eleven days I had to close. You can’t ask guests to navigate a closed road. That’s eleven days of lost bookings, lost income, and not a word of warning beforehand.

And the works themselves came at nearly quarter to eleven at night. There were Kanga drills going, flashing lights, motors running. This is a residential street. The noise was completely unacceptable. Impossible for any of my guests to sleep through.

Traffic could be diverted during the day. People could actually see the diversion signs in daylight, the works could be done at a reasonable hour, and residents could sleep at night. Why it had to be done like that — I genuinely don’t know.

Phase Two: Chippings— April

Then came the chippings in April. The grit was extraordinary — it was like the sands of the Sahara. Everything was covered in dust, along the whole street, on the pavement even. My car got chipped, the windscreen, and there was grit ground into everything. But we accepted it. We know what surface dressing involves, and over time the chippings bedded in, embedded into the road, and the excess was swept away. We got on with it. That’s what you do.

Phase Three: The No-Show — May

On the 8th of May, signs appeared again saying we couldn’t park on the main street. So everybody moved to the side streets, which caused congestion and its own set of problems for people trying to get in and out. Someone in the village had even moved their house move date, so not to clash with the road works. We were told the works would start at 9:30 in the morning. They didn’t. And we were never told why not.

I phoned Somerset Council to find out what was happening. The lady in the office was absolutely adamant that the work had started. I told her it hadn’t. Nothing was happening — there was nobody out there, no machinery, nothing. She was none the wiser. She had no information to give me, and I had no way of finding out when, or if, anyone was coming.

So there we were. Main road closed to parking, side streets clogged up, and not a worker in sight.

As I speak to you, it is the 13th of May. The road has no markings on it at all. None. It’s been surface dressed but it doesn’t feel finished — there’s still loose grit along the sides, and the section towards Shepton Mallet is as bad as it ever was. There’s a significant bend along that stretch where you can clearly see a gap — a section that simply wasn’t treated. It sits between the work done at our end of the village and the work done from the Shepton end, and it stands out. You can’t miss it. Councillor Martin Lovell has been receiving complaints about why that section was left, and rightly so. And there are black skid marks appearing on the surface now, which suggests the top layer is already wearing down. That’s not a good sign.

The matrix signs — the electronic warning signs on the approaches from the Wells direction on the B3139 and from the Shepton side — those have been taken down now. And with them gone, there is absolutely nothing to tell drivers, or residents, or anyone, that this work is unfinished. No signs. No indication that anyone is coming back to complete it. No word about when the road markings will be reinstated. The original sign notifying of the road closure on May 8th is still there.

And that brings me to what I find perhaps the most frustrating part of all of this. Has anyone had a leaflet? Any kind of notice? Any communication whatsoever?

Absolutely nothing. Nothing at all.

Not a letter through the door, not a notice in the village, not an update from the contractor or the council. Nothing telling us the road would be left without markings, nothing explaining the gap towards Shepton and Croscombe, why that has been left, nothing about timescales or what happens next. We are simply left to look at an unfinished road and wonder. Just signs put out on the road and then no shows.

This account was recorded by Claire Sully, local councillor and Croscombe resident, as part of an effort to document community experience of highway works and improve communication between Somerset Council, its contractors, and the residents they serve.

A video is available of the recent works on the A361 to illustrate some of the commentary above. The missing part of the road can be seen from 1 min 52 secs.