A Vision for Bear Flat Centre

The Bear Flat Association published a vision in 2020 for improving the Bear Flat Centre. The intention was to stimulate debate and spark more ideas – and to get everyone working together for a better centre. You can read the full Vision document here.

The Vision at a high level is :

  • Reconfiguring the Wellsway carriageway to yield more space for walking and cycling
  • Redesigning Hayes Place as a real place for people.
  • Traffic impact reduced through 20 MPH limits
  • Walking and cycling encouraged
  • Establish a heart where people will meet
  • Create more places to sit, linger or chat
  • Better landscaping to lift the environment
  • Signs to promote the Centre and what it has to offer

We are working to make the Vision a reality, not only by pressing the local authorities and others to act but also through our own initiatives.

Click here for a full list of what has happened since the Vision was published in 2020.

Highlights

We have managed to plant more Trees in some of the Avenues

We organise regular weed and leaf removal sessions.

We continue to keep Hayes Place clean and tidy through the efforts of the Clean and Green team

The Grade 2 listed victorian drinking fountain on the Gore has been restored

Working with Bath in Bloom , we have planted up the Gore with wild flowers making this a stronger and more attractive focal point for Bear Flat Centre.

WECA Scheme

WECA (the West of England Combined Authority) has carried out a corridor study of the A367 from Churchill Bridge all the way south to Radstock. The aim was to identify significant improvements for bus travel, walking and cycling.

First proposals were published for consultation in June 2023. Many BFA members responded.

The BFA original submission is here

BFA backed many of the measures as helping to fulfil our Vision for Bear Flat Centre. But some things we want are not yet included, and some we think need to be considered further.

We supported reduced space for general traffic, footpath widening, and pedestrian priority at many (but not all!) Wellsway junctions.

More consideration is needed, we said, of the Wellsway/Bloomfield Road junction, especially a crossing of Bloomfield Road.

We called for a 20mph speed limit through Bear Flat; also for more trees and landscaping, recognising that the A367 is also our ‘high street’.

Wellsway and Bloomfield Road Junction

BFA has published a position paper on the southern part of Bear Flat Centre.

The paper sets out the principles that we think should guide any proposals that come forward. We would like our High Street to be a pleasanter and safer place, with through traffic less dominant. The paper is here.

B&NES have now produced an Active Travel Plan between Englishcombe Lane and Bloomfield Rd that is up for consultation .The Council’s Active Travel Masterplan aims to encourage and enable walking, cycling, and other forms of travel that involve physical exercise, ensuring safer, healthier, and more accessible transport options.

BFA’s response to the B&NES Consultation is here

Conservation Area Study

BFA’s vision for improving the Bear Flat builds on the Conservation Area Study which BFA produced in 2020, commissioned and published by Bath & North East Somerset Council. Find out more