National Highways has recently announced that the A36 Warminster Road will be fully closed between Limpley Stoke and Monkton Coombe from Monday 12 August 2024 for about 6 months until Spring 2025, to undertake essential and urgent repairs.

This involves stabilising the embankment by the southbound carriageway following cracking of the pavement. Please see here for details: A36 Limpley Stoke carriageway repairs and stabilisation – National Highways.

This will affect vehicle journeys into Bath from the south, and vice versa, including buses. The route of the D2X bus service which normally uses the A36 will (N.B. subject to the clearance of overhanging branches) be diverted via Radstock and will not serve Beckington or the Fromefield/Stonebridge areas of Frome during the closure (although the D2 bus will). The official traffic diversion routes are via the A350, A4, Chippenham and (for HGVs) the M4 motorway (see here), but unofficial local routes around the closure via Radstock, Bradford-on-Avon and the B3110 via Norton St Philip or Branch Road to Hinton Charterhouse and Midford are likely to see increases in traffic through the narrow roads through the villages, which is of concern.

The likely impacts on Frome and the villages between Frome and Bath, and potential means of managing these, are being discussed by parish councillors and bus campaigners with First Buses and National Highways. Peter Travis, co-Chair of Somerset Bus Partnership and a Rode Parish Councillor, is leading the coordination of questions and raising of issues to National Highways and First Buses – and can be contacted by email to peter.plustravis@gmail.com.

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