Two divergent strands of the discussions with Bill Walker and Fife Council officials have come together into a couple of proposals, one of which needs the support of Transport Scotland. At this stage it's probably best to draw the strands together.
My recent email to Bill Walker, which is recorded in a previous post, led to him forwarding the exchange to Keith Brown, Minister for Transport and Housing. He replied with this letter.
This seemed to restate existing policy although it clarified that the A985 is the responsibility of Transport Scotland so although it didn't take the discussion forward, it at least clarified that part of the discussion. A separate email from Fife Council, stated their intention to meet regularly with Transport Scotland to discuss cycling issues. Limekilns seems to be one of many cycling infrastructure requirements that are being frustrated by the fact that responsibility for the trunk road network lies with Transport Scotland.
With that in mind, I summarised what for me were the priorities for Limekilns.
As far as Limekilns is concerned, I would see this discussion with Transport Scotland focussing first on two potential developments - creating a continuous link on the south side of the A985 between the Limekilns junction and the shared use path at the Hilton Road junction and upgrading (or simply redesignating) the footpath on the south side of the A985 to be shared use. This would allow cyclists to get to the Kings Road roundabout safely and legally without crossing the A985. I suspect the cost of this would be fairly trivial and if it were jointly funded by some combination of Sustrans (as an improvement to NCN76), the Council and the Trunk Roads Initiative it would be a better use of resources than repairing the path through Pattiesmuir.
The Council's response has been very positive:
We intend to meet with Transport Scotland Representatives next month and we will raise your suggestions then. I'd agree that getting a shared use route along the A985 on the section you mention would be a valuable part of the network. As it stands the existing footway is too narrow to designate as shared use. You'd be talking around £150k to widen the footway from the Limekilns Road to Hilton Road and about £300k for the section between Hilton Road and Kings Road. Both would require some land purchase as there isn't enough space in the road corridor for a full width shared use path. There may be some scope to reduce the path width and possibly avoid land purchase however. If Transport Scotland are willing to contribute and Sustrans were interested in match funding then I think we could turn this into a viable project delivered over say 2 - 3 years. One thing we would have to demonstrate is community demand / need for such a route. I'm not sure if you have spoken to your local community council and elected members but getting them on board as well as other local people will greatly improve the chances of getting funding for the project as well as convincing Transport Scotland to contribute. (My emphasis) The new council administration are very keen on community lead projects and there is a locality budget to support this.
I still intend to get some work done on the Pattiesmuir to Grange Road link as this is a worthwhile route and costs to do this would only be a few thousand pounds. This and improving the Limekilns shore route will be progressed this year but I can't give an exact timescale until I have an idea of the area works programme. I hope to finalise this within the next month.
So, the task now is to see what support there is among the Community Council, local councillors and within the village more generally.