Ordnance Survey – Great Britain's national mapping agency

Campaign to save UK's oldest cycle path gets into gear

05 March 2008

A campaign to save the UK's oldest cycle path has really got into gear this week.

Outraged cycling enthusiasts are fighting plans to turn part of the path into a bus route with an online petition, which sustainable transport charity Sustrans® has launched.

The Bristol to Bath Railway Path was built by Sustrans back in the 1980s and was the first route on the country's ever-expanding National Cycle Network.

Chief Executive of Sustrans, John Grimshaw, said: ‘It is flying in the face of the facts to seek to implement a scheme that actually positions walking and cycling in competition with public transport.

‘We need much more of both if we are ever to persuade people out of their cars, not one or the other.’

He added that Sustrans has heard from people all over the UK who are ‘appalled’ at the principle that walking and cycling be sacrificed to improve public transport.

Sustrans is responsible for the National Cycle Network, which is now around 12 000 miles in length and runs within 1 mile of over half of the UK's population.

Sustrans is a registered trademark of Sustrans Ltd.

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