Active Travel Act (Wales) - think Lon Clwyd

Active Travel is now on the Welsh statute book, and following the tragic death of experienced cyclist Jane Greave at Trefnant on the B5428 in the Vale of Clwyd, there are calls for Denbighshire County Council to learn lessons.

Not only the lessons to be learned from this particular road fatality and its location, but also the need to blow the dust off the file on the abandoned Lon Clwyd Cycleway project. This was initially promoted by the local authority in the 1990s, but fell victim in 2000 to a very negative opposition campaign led by farming and landowning interests with some support from householders. Land changes have taken place in the intervening years, but much can still be adapted to produce a viable continuous high quality route.

Eighteen miles in length between Rhyl and Ruthin, Lon Clwyd would have been amongst the very best off-road routes in the UK, bringing not only healthy commuting and recreational benefits to residents and visitors alike, but also invigorating the economic life of the vale, with truly sustainable green development. Farming and town-centre businesses were presented with an opportunity to diversify into green tourism, which they failed to grasp.

Of Lon Clwyd, Roy Spilsbury of the UK cycling charity CTC says, ‘Not all has been bad news in the past decade. Thanks to positive thinking by the county council we now have the superb Afon Clwyd Cycleway linking Rhyl to Rhuddlan. Also the off-road section of the A525 to St Asaph, with a proposal in the pipeline to develop a further section of route in the Denbigh area. But this is not enough. There are large gaps needing to be filled with off-road linear routing along the centre of the vale, where walkers and cyclists can safely choose to avoid motor traffic, such as at Trefnant where at least one other fatality has previously occurred where Ms Greave died’.

Daily Post columnist, David Blake. Year 2000 .........the longer the ripening, the richer the flavour!