THE online community newspaper for Nailsea people, their family and their friends

October 2025

Our town is a very, very nice town

Property people

Nailsea's newest housing estates - the council houses off The Uplands and the upmarket (and expensive) homes being built at The Close, Bucklands Place. They has been some success in halting the avalanche of planning applications but Nailsea and Backwell are still poised to grow by thousands of new dwellings. Read more on our property page HERE

What's On 2025

October is the month the clocks go back an hour and winter is about to begin. We have pumpkin sales in readiness for Halloween, Somerset International Festival of Art, lots of live gigs, High Street market, fireworks and funfair. Read all about it on our What's On page

Gallery 2025

At the end of summer we have Macmillan coffee mornings, Nailsea Cricket Club charity match, and a round-up of the August bank holiday in images. This is our favourite photograph of the month by talented teenager Lucas Spencer who specialises in sports images but has a keen eye for facial expressions smiles and grimaces. See more HERE

PLANNED ENGINEERING

Between Monday and Thursday, October 27-30, Network Rail will be renewing track between Bristol and Bath. Hourly trains between London Paddington and Bristol Temple Meads will use an alternative route via Bristol Parkway – not stopping at Chippenham or Bath Spa. Valid rail tickets will also be accepted for travel on First West of England buses – more detail HERE

In other news Great Western Railway (GWR) is set to be one of the next services brought back into public ownership, says the Transport Secretary. But while five new stations are set to be built over the coming years in the West: Charfield, Henbury, North Filton, Pill, and Portishead as part of a £400m investment nothing has been allocated for improved access for travellers with mobility issues for Nailsea & Backwell railway station.

SPECIAL SCHOOL MOVE

A special school in Pound Lane, Nailsea, is moving. Lime Hills Academy, which operates from two sites the one in Nailsea and in Weston-super-Mare is building its first purpose-built site in Langford, which should be ready soon. The school, which is for students with social, emotional, and mental health needs, will be headed up by a new principal, Natalie Sweet.

She will be replacing Lis Jolley, who has been promoted to an executive principal role at the Cabot Learning Federation, which runs Lime Hills Academy.

WhatsApp Image 2025-09-29 at 09.21.16_4098d8c7.jpg

Since the shortcut between The Perrings, Nailsea, and Backwell lake was blocked this summer protests haven’t abated.

Nailsea Town Council continues to collect user evidence forms on behalf of North Somerset Council.

Clerk Jo Duffy said: “We check the forms have been fully completed and then pass them directly on to North Somerset Council public rights of way team.

“Since we have been doing this more than 300 forms have been passed on.

“Nailsea Town Council will continue to collect and pass on user evidence forms for the foreseeable future.

“There is no deadline for submitting the forms.

“ When we have any new information from NSC we will pass it on to the residents of Nailsea.”

It was back in August that approximately 120 protesters gathered at Backwell lake.

Lots of councillors, walkers, students and footpath people.

The fight to re-open is with North Somerset Council legal department and depends on evidence gathered by Nailsea Town Council proving constant use of shortcut for many, many decades.Pop into the Tithe Barn or 65 High Street for official form to fill in.

Nailsea Action Group chair Antony Evans said: “Quite a lot of our work is a bit behind the scenes, but our support for the re-opening of the path to

Travels with my wheelchair

UNDERCOVER CYCLISTS

Nailsea Tesco has moved its cycle stand undercover much to the delight of Nailsea town councillor Ben Kushner who thanks store manager Kevin Williams for supporting active travel in Nailsea. This is the third covered cycle stand in the town with another at Waitrose and Scotch Horn Leisure Centre.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

October is the month the High Street Millennium clock is set to start working after many years...and across the road the banking hub currently being fitted out is due to open...watch this space...

Nailsea Action Group (NAG) is asking for donations to keep it afloat and monitor proposed building on floodplains.

NAG was established at the end of 2015 to promote and protect Nailsea’s rural setting.

During the past six years its objectives have broadened into campaigning that if the planned additional 3,000+ homes (1,781 in Nailsea and 1,120 in Backwell) go ahead:

there will be sufficient appropriate and sustainable infrastructure to support them;
that the working, living and ecological environment is not only protected but enhanced;
and that there is access to green spaces (especially where much may disappear) to maintain not least the quality of the air we breathe, but also for the benefit of physical and psychological health; and
they will not be built where it is clear that climate change will seriously impact on their viability such as in north-west Nailsea (flood plain.

At a North Somerset Council planning meeting NAG spoke against the plan to build on the site currently occupied by Battens Farm and beyond.

And they made representations about the dangerous access point to and unacceptable appearance of the proposed development on the junction of Blackthorn Way, Lodge Lane and Trendlewood Way.
In conjunction with SpeedWatch, NAG is monitoring the speed of traffic on Engine Lane which suggests that it is becoming a rat run.

All houses facing Engine Lane have been leafletted for their support.

To learn more about NAG go to https://nailseaactiongroup.org.uk/ and to contribute to its work donate here:

Business account
Lloyds Bank
Account Name: Nailsea Action Group
Sort Code: 30-98-97
Account Number: 61888063

Support Nailsea Action Group

New Christmas 2025 events page HERE

Calls to reopen path

Backwell Lake from The Perrings was not.

“Our members were present at the gathering and I gave an interview to the BBC and provided them with photographs of the path which they used on their website.

“We have written to North Somerset Council (NSC) urging them to move swiftly and have spoken at Nailsea Town Council (NTC) about the matter which they are active on as well.”

Phil Williams, pictured, has been walking from his Nailsea home to the lake ground almost daily taking photographs of its abundant wildlife.

He has also filled in an evidence form.

A Nailsea woman and her wheelchair travelled across Europe this summer and the worse trouble spot she encountered was trying to board a train at Nailsea & Backwell railway station!

In August Kate Strachecky joined a Freedom One Life Race Across Europe for an epic journey from London to Turin using a powered wheelchair.

The purpose was to ‘test’ disability access for wheelchair users.

And sadly, as we predicted, the worse part of the journey was getting a train from Nailsea & Backwell railway station due to timetable cancellations and pre-booked assistance at Temple Meads failed to turn up.

However, the challenge was completed and with good cheer.

Kate said: “I've made it and although I didn't win, I've managed to visit London, Brussels, Strasbourg, Basel, Milan and Turin.

”I've ‘driven’ a train, visited what was the tallest building in the world for 200 years, earned €40 in 20 minutes while busking in Strasbourg, crossed between three countries in about 10 minutes, got stuck in disabled toilets that aren't big enough, had a shower seat break from under me, experienced both the good and the poor side of accessible travel and, more than anything, had an amazing time.”

Kate reported her adventures to the Nailsea disabled access café and thanked Nailsea Community Trust for its £500 grants towards the trip.

Cafe organiser Alison Morgan who has campaigned for decades to improve access at Nailsea & Backwell railway station said: “It was great to have Kate back with us and to hear about her adventure.

“We were all very impressed with her new wheelchair and some of us were going down with severe wheelchair envy...until we heard the price, somewhere in the region of £20,000!

“It was sadly unsurprising to hear that the most difficult part of her journey each way was from Nailsea to Bristol.

“I will feedback her experiences to GWR."

Cafe attendees were encouraged to complete the WECA Rail Accessibility Survey.

Kate did, however, say that she much preferred train travel to air travel, and Steve Ledbrook mentioned he had had a nightmare with EasyJet refusing to let him travel with his chair even though he had prebooked assistance.

Alison added: “On a positive note, another cafe member said that Parkway Station was very accessible and easy to use and the staff there looked after her very well.

“I shall also feed this back to GWR.”

The next cafe is on Friday, November 28, 10.30am-noon, when North Somerset Council sustainable travel officer Luke Turner has been invited.

Kate, aged 44, who is married to Eric with two teenaged daughters at Nailsea School, has Functional Neurological Disorder (FND) which is a problem with how the brain receives and sends information to the rest of the body.

She said: “I'm now medically retired but before becoming ill approximately four years ago I worked as an operations manager in education.”

ACCESS CHATS: Kate demonstrates the versatility of the state-of-the-art wheelchair and the previous article opposite featured on our August front page. She is sat next to Alison Morgan who chaired the cafe meeting