Country trail cost doubles

Jun 28 2008 by nick lavigueur, Hudd Sat

THE cost of a constructing a key countryside trail through Kirklees has smashed through the £1m barrier to more than double its original estimate.

Council officers have blamed the blunder on a “problematic” Holme Valley section of the 22km Dark Peak Link, a trail between Hade Edge and Standedge.

The new route, part of a Pennine trail from Derbyshire to Cumbria, was projected to cost just over £½m but is now set to hit the £1.2m mark after officials under-estimated the construction spend in the remote moorlands above the Holme and Colne valleys.

Now Kirklees has been asked to stump up an extra £162,000 and Natural England, formerly the Countryside Agency, is having to almost treble its contribution to £840,000.

A Kirklees Council report reveals the soaring costs have been caused by alterations to the route due to overriding problems with landowners and the Peak Park Planning Authority.

It says: “While the section from Standedge to Greenfield Road is 90% complete, negotiations with landowners for phase two of the project, from the A635 Greenfield Road to Holme, has been much more difficult.

“Phase three is intended to pass through Holme and connect to Ramsden Road and then to the Kirklees Boundary at Hades.

“There are serious concerns from residents of Holme that there is a parking problem within the village and that this could only worsen with the proposed route.

“A petition for action on parking problems has been submitted and a public meeting in the village is proposed to listen to residents concerns and to try and find an acceptable solution.”

Clr Ken Sims, cabinet member for regeneration, said many villagers in Holme had objected to the plan on the basis of parking.

He said: “A number of walks beginning in Holme have been so successful that the footfall that has been created has caused a big parking problem.

“But we hope we have come up with something to release the tension so that people’s driveways and farmer’s gates and access roads aren’t blocked.”

Clr Sims said he hoped to start consultation with residents and interested parties in the next few weeks.

The Dark Peak Link, set to open in 2011, adopts roughly 15km of existing public rights of way, meaning large numbers of Kirklees’ rural footpaths will be upgraded with substantial grant support from Natural England. The route is also eligible for grant support of 50% of maintenance costs from Natural England.