** Update** – 23/07/2013
A planning application has now been submitted for the path to be completed, it appears that the path will be tarmac, with street lights added where necessary. The application reference is DA/2013/0506 and can be viewed on-line at the Daventry DC website: DDC Planning Application Site
18/01/2013
Daventry District Council announced this week that work on clearing vegetation for a potential new section of footpath and cycleway linking the Middlemore development to Daventry town centre will take place in the next few weeks.
Daventry District Council plans to build a 335 metre long extension to an existing footpath cycleway along the former railway track that separates Middlemore and the Heartlands Industrial Estate.
The new section will continue the existing route, which currently stops at Drayton Park, to Middlemore, and is identified as a required link in Northamptonshire County Council’s Transport Plan for the town.
The path will improve access between Middlemore and the town centre by creating a safe and high quality off-road route for cyclists and walkers.
In order for the route to be surveyed and designed, a number of trees and shrubs, many of which are in poor condition, will be removed or trimmed back from the overgrown area.
It is planned that the path will be three metres wide and have provision for new low energy street lighting.
Councillor Chris Over, Economic, Regeneration and Employment Portfolio Holder at Daventry District Council, said: “It’s been part of our and the County Council’s strategy for some time to create a new path on the disused railway line to create a link to the Middlemore estate from the town centre.
“While that stretch is unofficially used as a footpath at the moment the ground is very rough and overgrown.
“If the proposed footpath extension is approved it will not only improve access to Middlemore, it will also boost our green agenda by encouraging people to walk and cycle rather than drive into Daventry.”
Work on clearing the site is expected to complete by the end of February.
It is hoped that once this work is complete, the existing temporary path currently running along the front of the development and the reservoir will finally be removed and a permanent tarmac path laid.
