Bridport: New cycle route is planned to link open space to car park (From Bridport and Lyme Regis News)
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Bridport: New cycle route is planned to link open space to car park
10:00am Thursday 3rd May 2012 in Local News By Rene Gerryts
Asker Meadows, Bridport
AN OPEN space in Bridport is to have a new cycle route linking it all the way to the South Street car park via a new bridge.
Dorset County Council has funding for the path and bridge at Asker Meadows and a planning application should be lodged by the end of the week.
Bridport town surveyor Daryl Chambers said the field next to Morrisons was now owned by the town council.
All the other adjoining fields, including one known as The Boot through to East Road, were being transferred from the district to the town council too.
Mr Chambers said: “The intention is to try and get a cycle way all the way from East Road through to Morrisons and around to the brewery.
“There is funding for a bridge by the New Zealand development and we have looked at other funding. We think we have all the money to fund all the pathways.
“We have walked through it with the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty team, who are very supportive.
“We have had Dorset Wildlife Trust, who are going to do a species survey and we have a tree group who want to do a tree survey.
“We will have everything we want to produce a ten-year management plan.”
He added: “At the moment Asker Meadows is deemed a nature reserve and that is what we want to make it.
“Very few towns have a green space like that in the middle. It could be an absolutely wonderful area.”
Mr Chambers added that at the moment people with prams or pushchairs cannot get through because of old kissing gates. The route will offer easier access to the town centre.
Fences will be changed so there is a stock fence, which creates a clear corridor with no stiles or gates but all the fields will still be accessible. They will be gated and controlled and give the council five controlled grazing areas. The new footpath will also mean children have a safe route to walk to St Mary’s School.
Coun Maggie Ray said: “This will be great for our green tourism image and will bring money into the town as well as helping local people.”
Sustrans is also hoping to put in a cycle route from behind the Co-op all the way to Loders and have the permission of nearly all the landowners to do it, added Mr Chambers.
