Highland Council awarded £600k to extend Beauly cycle path
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A short stretch of cycle path will be built outside Beauly after funding to extend the existing off-road route was secured.
Highland Council has been awarded £600,000 for the path which will continue alongside the A862 to the east of the Lovat Bridge.
The existing cycle route goes from the bridge to the Kirkhill junction at Dunballoch. The cash will allow for that path to be extended to the A833 Kiltarlity junction.
The route is intended to be part of a longer-term goal of a "round the firth" route taking in Inverness, Beauly and Muir of Ord.
The local authority said it was pleased to have been awarded the funding for what it calls phase 2 of the Beauly to Inverness Active Travel Route.
Councillor Ken Gowans, chairman of the council's environment and infrastructure committee, said: “I’m delighted that our application for funding has been successful. This shared path will provide a further car-free section of the route between Beauly and Inverness for people choosing to walk, wheel or cycle.
"The project will extend the existing route alongside the A862 from Dunballoch, east of the Lovat Bridge, to the A833 junction nearby.”
It is understood a schedule of works will now be drawn up and a contractor appointed before timescales for the construction can be confirmed.
The funding is part of a new £20 million Scottish Government investment package in walking, wheeling and cycling for local authorities, regional transport partnerships and national park authorities.
The Active Travel Transformation Fund aims to deliver ambitious, construction-ready active travel infrastructure schemes across Scotland.
Highland MSP Ariane Burgess welcomed the investment in the Beauly scheme and others across the Highlands and Islands, including a further £630,000 to support active travel links from Dulnain Bridge to Grantown-on-Spey.
She said: “We can ask people to walk, wheel and cycle – but if our streets are dangerous, our pavements blocked off or our traffic too congested and fast, they will not. That’s why this kind of infrastructure is so vital.
“The Dulnain Bridge to Grantown off-road active travel route will make a big difference to people in the Cairngorms, enabling the local community and visitors to avoid the busy A95 and safely access the new distillery. It’s fantastic to see the hard work of Dulnain Bridge Community Development Trust who’ve been working on this project for more than five years being rewarded.”
Announcing the funding, minister for active travel Patrick Harvie said: "We’ve worked closely with local authorities to ensure this new approach works for them – making it easier to deliver more ambitious infrastructure projects faster than ever before.
“Later this summer, Scotland will be the cycling centre of the world with the first ever cycling world championships being hosted here. I want to make sure that the excitement around those elite events is matched by our ambition for everyday walking, wheeling and cycling. That is why I am just as excited about what we can do to deliver more safe, segregated and accessible infrastructure and make it easier for more people to do so."
