Plans to improve the footpath between Claverton Down and Combe Down are progressing.

Your Liberal Democrat councillors want to make the AQ78 path into a safe and legal cycle route, so Ralph Allen pupils and University students don’t have to cycle on Claverton Down Road. This will involve physical improvements to the path so that it is less muddy and it needs a legal order to change the status of the path.

Local residents and your Liberal Democrat councillors have worked hard to get the footpath officially recognised by a government inspector in recent years, and to have the fence in the middle of the pathway taken down.

Over Christmas there were informal consultations with landowners to check if the path could be converted into a bridlepath voluntarily. Two landowners were happy with the proposed change, but one was not. This means that the council will have to apply for a Public Path Order to create the bridleway.

Notices advertising the intended change will be placed on the site next month and stakeholders (like rambling groups, neighbours and the university) will be written to. Please do respond to this consultation, even if you have written in to previous consultations on creating the footpath. The file will then be sent to the Secretary of State to decide.