21/09/10……Thame to Haddenham community path plan ‘suspended’

PROPOSALS for a community path to enable cylists, walkers and horseriders to travel between Thame and Haddenham, will not be progressed.

Following a recent consultation by Buckinghamshire County County, council members have decided not to go ahead with the route and have issued the following statement by Cllr Rodney Rose:

“The decision has been made in light of three key issues. Firstly, given the current financial climate, it is not the right time to be pursuing such a venture. Secondly, it is clear that there is substantial objection from the landowners both sides of the County boundary. The associated risks of pursuing creation orders, with unknown compensation costs, make this an unattractive option. Thirdly, this is an area of low lying meadows known to flood in wet winters and after heavy rain.

“To promote such a route without adequate investment to address safety issues or maintenance costs (which by their nature would be in conflict with the character of the route) would be building up future problems with path users and landowners.

“A commuting and recreation route between the two settlements remains an aspiration through the Oxfordshire Rights of Way Improvement Plan and Local Transport Plan. We will continue to try and seek this type of route to be put in place, but our preference would be for a constructed facility which is suitable for year round use, possibly in part alongside the A418. We will continue to work with your council if such a route becomes likely.”

Val Letheren, BCC’s Cabinet Member for Transport, in a letter to those who had registered support for a community path between the two settlements, added:

“In light of Oxfordshire?s decision not to take forward a joint creation order to provide a route for cyclists, pedestrians and equestrians over the line of the public footpath between Moorend Lane, Thame and Scotsgrove Mill, Haddenham, Buckinghamshire County Council are unable to proceed with this route.

“Given only a short section of the route is within Buckinghamshire?s County boundary it is not practical to go through the necessary legal conversions for this section in isolation. Therefore, Buckinghamshire County Council is suspending work on this route at this time, pending a change in decision by Oxfordshire County Council.”

PHOTO: A group of local cyclists on the Pheonix Trail, the shared-use community path between Thame and Princes Risborough.