Bishop's Hull housing petition - OVER 250 signatures have been collected in protest against a proposed housing development in Bishop's Hull. [Taunton News]

I was actually born and raised in Bishops Hull as my father was before me and as far as I know his father was locally bred also. I have to say that I think the time to save the character of the village has long since passed. It seems to me that it is a district of Taunton these days rather than a beautiful little village. I can remember it before it had the Silk Mills road, the birds nest estate (Chaffinch Close etc) and the estate that goes from Wellington Road to the back end of Lowlands Terrace (which lost four houses to make way for Silk Mills Road. It then had a nice little village feel that cannot be retrieved now that the village is cut in half by a major thoroughfare.

As for building some new homes in the village I don't know where they are planned to go so I can't really speak to it. I would think that the only possibilities are along the edges of Silk Mills which are mainly flood plains or behind Shutewater. The article above does not actually state the location so I will endeavour to find out and post the information here. I will say, however, that there is one major problem with the amount of new homes that are planned for the Taunton area and that is our roads. Our local authorities are continually ignoring the state of the road system around here. The only recent news I have heard regarding the building of new roads is from a recent Gazette article. These plans hardly seem likely to solve the huge queues Tauntonions have to endure on a daily basis. There should be a requirement to upgrade the road systems as new homes are built and should be ready when the first residents are taking possession of those homes. I have heard however that we are in the beginning section of a larger plan to regenerate a lot of the Taunton area which the renovation of the cricket ground was supposed to mark. I just hope that the road system is not once again ignored.