Plans for new Royal Wootton Bassett cycle route on display (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Plans for new Royal Wootton Bassett cycle route on display

6:00pm Friday 20th July 2012 in Royal Wootton Bassett By Emma Dunn

Plans to help get everyone on their bikes have gone on display to the public.

Dozens of residents visited the Civic Centre in Station Road, Royal Wootton Bassett on Monday to see proposals for a cycle route between the town and Swindon.

The consultation, which is being run by Wiltshire Council, Swindon Council, Sustrans and the Highways Agency, continued from noon-8pm at the Link Centre, in West Swindon, on Tuesday.

Alistair Millington, area manager for Wiltshire and Swindon Sustrans, said: “People have been asking about a cycle route. There are people that are already cycling between Royal Wootton Bassett and Swindon who find they don’t feel particularly safe using the A3102 or Hook Street.

“There is potential to get lots of people out of their cars and cycling between Swindon and Royal Wootton Bassett but they need a safe route to do it. “People could walk along the new route too.”

The route will help reduce carbon emissions, improving health and supporting economic growth.

There are five options about which members of the public are being invited to give their views.

Mr Millington said their preferred route, known as Route E, would be adjacent to the A3102 and would run through Lydiard Fields and come out near the Costa Coffee drive-thru. This particular route would be about two miles long, and would cost an estimated £946,000 to build.

“Although in principle the land owners are supportive, we have got a long way to go,” he said.

There will be another consultation before they apply for planning permission. The route will not be finished before 2015.

Alison Amyes, 33, a hairdresser of West Swindon, said: “My parents live in Wootton Bassett so it would be nice to have a more direct route.

“Sometimes I cycle up Hook Street and sometimes on the main road between Junction 16 and Salley Pussey’s. It can be a bit hairy. A new route really would be brilliant.”