New Cycleway to Wandlebury Opens on 6th August

Wandlebury Country Park is situated on chalklands of the Gog Magog hills, less than 10km from Cambridge City Centre.  It boasts an Iron Age hill fort,  meandering scenic footpaths and picnic areas set in 110 acres of woods and grassland.  Owned and managed by Cambridge Past Present and Future (formerly the Cambridge Preservation Society) they carefully tend the grounds to encourage a diversity of fauna and flora making this a fine destination for families and nature-lovers.  Yet, incredibly, until now it hasn't been a particularly convenient place to reach by bike.

This is because the journey necessitated cycling along a 2km section of the Babraham Road (A1307) with fast-moving traffic passing at a close distance.  Supposed safety improvements in 2003 consisted of narrowing the width of the outbound lane leading up the hill to Wandlebury in the belief that this would cause traffic to slow down.  Whether it had the desired effect or not is debatable, but it certainly caused fast-moving vehicles to pass cyclists at ever closer distances.  Not surprisingly, many residents chose to make the journey by car instead.

Wishing to encourage visitors to arrive at Wandlebury by bicycle, CambridgePPF took the bold step of applying, together with Cambridgeshire County Council, for central Government funding for a new shared cycle path from the Babraham Park and Ride to the park entrance.  The bid for £585,000 was successful and construction work began on 12th April 2010.

Schematic from: County Council consultation plan, 2009

Official opening of the shared-use cycle path takes place on 6th August and Mr T plans to be on hand to participate in the opening celebrations and to see how well the shared cycleway operates.  A "consultation briefing note" of August 2009 proposed a shared use cycleway of 2.5 - 3.0 metres width; Cambridge Cycling Campaign favouring 3.0 metres.  Yet by the time approval was sought at Cambridgeshire County Council cabinet in September 2009, reference in the briefing paper was solely to "a 2.5 metre wide shared use path".  Such criticism notwithstanding, improved cycling routes around Cambridge are very much to be welcomed.  Well done all those who have made this cycleway a reality.