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Hundreds of people have had their say on proposals for a cycling and walking route to be created on the south coast.
National Highways recently ran an eight-week engagement on plans for a six-mile-long off-road route which will link Chichester with Emsworth along the A259. Over 400 people took the time to feedback and comment on the proposals.
Early feedback from the engagement revealed that people recognise the need for the new cycle route, with many commenting that they would feel much safer cycling on a regular basis if these plans go ahead.
The route, which is currently part of the National Cycle Network route 2, will link into the Centurion Way (former railway conversion) and other local routes on the Manhood peninsula towards Chichester.
The improvement will also link several schools and will enable more people to leave their cars at home and cycle or walk safely to work or school, helping to improve air quality in the area.
National Highways project manager Adrianna Chirovici said: “We hope that over the last eight weeks we’ve shown the local community how this project is going to make a real difference in improving peoples’ ability to use more varied means of travel between Chichester and Emsworth.
“We have been greatly encouraged by the response to our engagement and I thank everyone who got involved; the feedback we received will play an important role in the evolution of our design. We were really pleased to hear that the overwhelming majority who participated found the webinars useful. Our attention will now turn to analysing what people have told us, so we can take it into account and continue to develop our proposals to maximise the benefits for everyone.”
The next stage of the project’s development will be to work through people’s comments in detail and use them to produce a final design. Full details of the plans can be seen on the website.
