Background 

The central section of Sankey Valley Park, between the rail viaduct (Seven Arches) and Bewsey Bridge, is one of our most popular routes for people walking and cycling.

Since it's a popular route, we undertake surveys at this location annually, which regularly exceed 2,000 people per day. The trail also has an incredible amount of potential to enable more active travel trips as, in many cases, it offers a much more direct and shorter journey than the equivalent route by car. 

However, the current condition of the path in this area is poor and, in places, suffers various surfacing defects and drainage issues. From our survey's, there is also clear evidence that the path is too narrow to accommodate the high number of people wanting to use it.

Since we have recently obtained ring-fenced resources to deliver cycling and walking schemes within our Local Transport Plan, we now want to use some of this budget to upgrade a 500m section of path between the rail viaduct and Bewsey Bridge.

Comment

The scheme will benefit people walking, cycling, using mobility scooters, wheelchairs etc. Furthermore, it will help people travel sustainably, healthily and safely with plenty of room for everyone. 

This planned investment is the latest of many recent schemes in our parks and open spaces funded by Active Travel programmes, adding to the recent upgrades at the Trans Pennine Trail, New Cut Trail and Victoria Park.

The plan

The existing main north-south path within Sankey Valley Park has several sections in poor condition and narrow. Therefore, we plan to have it resurfaced and widened to between 3.0 and 3.5 metres.

A drawing showing the scheme in more detail is available to download. If you're unable to view this plan, please let us know, and we can supply a paper copy for you to consider.

Programme

We've scheduled the scheme to start on site in late September/early October. 

At various stages of the works, it will be necessary to close sections of the path. However, we'll provide advance notification within the park and on this web page when this is the case. For the vast majority of the construction period, we'll install signed diversions that will use other paths within Sankey Valley Park while we progress with the project.