Havant Borough Council is planning a new cycle path. The path would join up with the existing shared path that goes from the north west corner of the bridge, to Mill Lane. It would continue all the way up the west side of Langstone road to the entrance to Langstone Technology Park. The path will be two-way. Some of it will be resurfaced and it will by-pass a tree that is right in the middle of the pavement. Havant is also proposing to improve some road layouts, crossings and amenities.
Click here to see the ‘before’ and ‘after’ plan.
On your behalf, we asked the following questions, and show the answers given by the project manager:
- Can you confirm the new shared cycle / pedestrian path to the south of the plan will be continuous from the end of the grey shaded section?
Yes the grey merely indicates the section we would resurface. South of that, given pedestrian usage, we don’t propose at this stage to do anything physical other than to sign the route as far as Mill Lane. Were Southmere Field to come up for development we would expect a S106 to fund the remainder. - What’s the thinking behind the upgraded crossing point between Woodberry Avenue and Langbrook Close? Is there an intention at some point to help people coming from the entrance to LTP cross to Woodberry Avenue as a route through to the Langstone section of the Billy Trail and then on to the east of Havant?
That is a S278 commitment with the Langbrook Farm pub development which has been subsumed into this scheme for ease of delivery. It is to cycle standard and thus useful for access to the Billy Trail. It effectively forms part of the ‘jug handle’ for any southbound cyclists on Langstone Road to join the off road route on the west side. - Having reached the north end of the new path, people will be looking for a route through to Havant or towards Portsmouth. Do you have another section in mind? We’ve heard that the Seagate car park is permissive – do you know if that’s right?
We would be looking at a route continuing up the west side of Langstone Road past the Premier Inn, then through the woods (unregistered land) with a bridge over the stream to meet the cycle route at the subway. As to Seagate etc., yes there is a S106 agreement with SEEDA for a permissive cycle route. SEEDA no longer exists of course, and we never unfortunately claimed the money that the S106 allowed for. In theory the route is established by the agreement, albeit unmarked and unsigned.
NB:
- A section 278 agreement is a section of the Highways Act 1980 that allows developers to enter into a legal agreement with the council to make alterations or improvements to a public highway, as part of a planning application.
- An S106 agreement is a planning obligation under Section 106 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 (as amended).
- SEEDA (the South East England Development Agency) was one of a number of regional development agencies – it was closed by the Government in 2012.
We’d like to hear your comments about the planned path. It’s human nature to criticise more easily than to praise, but we would like to hear positive feedback as well as issues you see. We’ll aggregate the responses (including contradictory ones) next week-end (18/19 March) and report back to Havant.
People who cycle do so for a variety of reasons and have a variety of skills, experience, confidence levels and equipment. We’d therefore like to hear from as many people as possible. So, please send your views to me at Andy@cyclehayling.org. It would help if your response could also indicate the kind of cycling you do, whether you are a regular user of Langstone Road, and how the proposed path would affect you.
We look forward to hearing from you.
Andy Henderson
Chair, Cycle Hayling