An investment of £15.4m of government funding will be made to help deliver 12 transport schemes in Somerset, the County Council has confirmed.

The schemes include improvements to the M5 and A38 at Wellington and protecting the county’s Blue Anchor pub and B3191 from coastal erosion, as well as strengthening a number of bridges across the entire county.

Approximately £4m will be spent on the Blue Anchor coastal work. The council announced early this month that it would be committing this funding to reinforce the cliffs at Blue Anchor to protect the eponymous pub and the B3191, which connects the village to Watchet and Minehead. 

A further £3.4 million will be spent for several large bridge strengthening projects across Somerset and £1.75m on pothole repairs. The council receives money from the DfT’s pothole action fund to fix potholes in areas where repairs have been identified and are urgently required. This funding has already been built into the council’s capital programme for the rest of the financial year.

Further to this £1.5m will be spent on pedestrian and cycling schemes. The funding will cover a number of schemes, of which three have currently being confirmed, including; red surfacing on some of Taunton’s cycle lanes, widening and resurfacing teh cycle routes between Minehead and Carhampton and strengthening and improving the footpath between Minehead and Williton.

Other projects include phase one the major Toneway Corridor upgrade. More than £8M has been set aside for this scheme, which will see the Creech Castle junction in Taunton (where the A38 Bridgwater Road meets the A358 Toneway) redesigned to increase capacity and improve traffic flow.