Ros Hathorn's campaign

Ring Fort Road Path will transform connectivity between Histon and Impington and Orchard Park.   The path is a set of concrete steps with a bike rail which follows an established desire line from the A14 roundabout down to the skate park and on into the sports area, playground, primary school, Premier inn and towards Unwin Square and the parade of shops.   

I have frequently used the current informal short cut which consisting of a mud path on a steep slope is quite dangerous.  I regularly  lose my footing and sometimes slip several metres down the slope.   Steps will be a massive improvement.   

The funding comes from historic section 106 money which comes from Orchard Park developers.  Permission was agreed for the steps before I became councillor but it has felt like climbing a mountain trying to get final confirmation on the project.    The project was always due to start in a few months and there were always new permissions needed or different people working on the project.  A final push over the last year has got us a start date and the prospect of a safe route being in place for the summer.  

Without my persistence I am sure this project would have been quietly forgotten.  A lot of different permissions have been needed and that has repeatedly felt like the point at which the project was on the crux of collapsing as no one was ever prepared to sign.    I called on all my contacts at National Highways and went through colleagues to develop relationships with the landowners to finally get the permissions the county council needed to deliver the project.