New £3million Peak District Cycle Route Ignores Local Needs

(Written 27/11/09).

A £3.785million new cycle route to encourage Peak District residents to cycle to work was approved by a Peak District National Park Authority committee today.

Members of the Services Committee backed the route, which will link Bakewell, Matlock and Buxton, and also see former railway tunnels closed in the 1960s reopened for recreational use.

The route, which has received funding from Cycling England and the Department for Transport, will also link railway stations in Buxton and Matlock, allowing visitors arriving by train to cycle into the District.

John Fern, Head of Communications for the Peak District National Park Authority, said: “We are encouraging local residents to go to work by bike. These public routes will allow people in Matlock, Bakewell and Buxton to do so.

“We’re trying to make those who don’t cycle at all occasional cyclers, and those who are occasional cyclers cycle everywhere.

“It’s a positive for the National Park, residents and visitors.”

Hope Valley Councillor Tracy Critchlow, who forms part of the Committee, said: “I think a new cycle route is a good idea and will be safer than people cycling on the roads.

“It will help encourage visitors to come now there will be a longer route for them to walk.

“But whether people will use it as a commuter cycle route remains to be seen.”

Richard Thoday, 46, a mechanic at Stanley Fearn Cycles Ltd in Matlock, is a member of the Derwent Valley Cycleway Group, who campaign for safer cycle routes in the area. He said that although the route would make it safer for inexperienced cyclists, it had ignored the needs of local residents.

He said: “This new route should help a lot, but we would have liked it to be closer to the community.

“At the moment it’s a bit further away, which makes it harder for the local community to use.

“A lot of people travel shorter distances to work, but this is a long-distance plan.

“It’s still a quiet, traffic-free route, but I think it is being created more for tourists.”

The National Park Authority has not yet confirmed the specific route the cycleway will follow, but works could start in January with a view to completion by March 2011.

The Authority will now begin negotiations with local landowners and with Derbyshire County Council.