A new plan - entitled a Placemaking Plan by B&NES who collated it - has identified key areas in Radstock where housing could be put.

One of those is the former Radstock County Infants site, which, it is said, could provide ten new homes. The area is a conservation area so the report includes a warning that the frontage of the site should be consistent with and respond positively to the distinct building line and to this part of the Conservation Area - which should include a predominance of white lias stone as the external walling material. (This is the stone that gives much of Radstock its distinctive look).

The development should also, the report says provide: " Protection of existing trees on the western boundary, including those designated with Tree Preservation Orders and that car parking and highways should not dominate or dictate the design."

The full consultation is part of a wider report by B&NES on what the future could hold for the Somer Valley and includes a lot of news on proposals for Midsomer Norton.

You can read about the consultation by clicking HERE : for Radstock page 42 and onwards

Within that it appears that the former St Nicholas School - the building at least would need to remain standing in any development with the report stating :

1. Conservation and reuse of the 19th century buildings as part of a residential development and/or community use
2. Development should reinstate the important historic features to enhance the character and appearance of the Conservation Area and preserve the setting of the surrounding Grade II listed building.

On Monday there is a Radstock Town Council meeting at 7pm in the Methodist Church. If you have strong feelings about the plans or other issues for the town, you are encouraged to come along with public questions always taken first.

You can get details by clicking HERE : There will also be a review of the investment in the Radstock Town Football club of 9,894.83.

One other part of the B&NES report which may be of interest says it is not possible to develop the Rymans Engineering site, warning " Potential redevelopment for uses compatible with its location close to the town centre would be appropriate. However, assessments undertaken suggest that redevelopment may not be viable or deliverable. Therefore, the site is not allocated in the Placemaking Plan."

A potted history of Radstock is also in the plan

The discovery of coal in 1763 led to the development of Radstock as the

centre of coal mining activity in northern Somerset until the 1950s. In the mid nineteenth century there were six large collieries working in the town with further pits to the north and west beyond the main centre.

1. The most striking remainder of the coal industry is the transport infrastructure in the town. In the second half of the nineteenth century Radstock became an important junction of the Somerset and Dorset Railway and the Bristol and North Somerset Railway which subsequently formed part of the Great Western Railway and passed through the town.

The development of transport was essential to the survival of the coal industry and resulted in the opening of the Somerset Coal Canal. The tramways and the eventual arrival of the railways in 1854 had a significant impact on the morphology of the town with a shift away from the old historic core around the church of St Nicholas, to the 41 hillsides surrounding the coalmines.