Warwickshire News Mine

Four schemes were attempting to win the lottery payout, and the results of the voting have been announced this lunchtime, with 42 per cent of people voting for Connect2.

This means new peaceful off-road routes linking Kenilworth town centre with The Greenway and The University of Warwick, along with a further ambitious scheme in Rugby, are to be delivered by national sustainable travel organisation Sustrans.

Programmes highlighting the four competing bids were shown on ITV1 last week, and the final voting took place last weekend – the results were announced today.

The Chair of the local Connect2 Steering Group, Warwickshire County Councillor John Whitehouse (Kenilworth Abbey) said: “An awful lot of hard work has gone into the campaigning here in Kenilworth, with volunteers working evening and weekends to ensure that as many people as possible had the Connect2 information.

“Of course, there was also a helping hand from a panto horse on a tandem!

“I’m now looking forward to seeing how Sustrans progress this scheme here in Kenilworth.”

Connect2 was competing with three other bids for projects in Cornwall at the Eden Project, in the Black Country and at Sherwood Forest.

The local Kenilworth Connect2 project developed from an existing local initiative to develop further the disused Kenilworth-Berkswell railway line as a leisure route. The ‘Friends of Kenilworth Greenway’ group has been in existence for several years, involving local councillors, residents and local footpath groups.

Parts of the leisure route are already accessible and are popular with local walkers and horse riders, although difficult at times in wet or icy weather. Warwickshire County Council is already committed to improvements to the route during this financial year. The Connect2 project will provide additional funding to complete the upgrade of the existing route, and to extend it right into Kenilworth to link with existing pedestrian/cycling routes. It will also extend a new link across the fields to the Warwick University campus – for more information see http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/newsandevents/news/connect2_a_new/

A key feature will be a safe crossing of the busy A429 Coventry Road for pedestrians and cyclists. A new bridge over the Coventry Road is envisaged, in the place where the old railway bridge existed until the 1960s.

For more information see http://www.thepeoples50 million.org.uk

Link to WCC