Campaign to install path on busy road successful

A campaign to install a footpath on a busy Coventry road has been successful - but plans to extend it across a railway bridge will not go ahead due to lack of funds.

More than 500 people signed a petition calling for action on Stoneleigh Road after a number of pedestrians were reported being hit by cars.

The road, which is a key route linking Coventry and the University of Warwick to the A46, only has a footpath along a quarter of its length.

Coventry City Council said it would install a "park-style" path on the 780-metre stretch, but installing the footpath over the bridge would cost more than £500,000.

The council's head of network management, David Keaney, said the strength of feeling from residents was clear.

He said: "Several options have been considered and our transport design team has carried out some designs on how we could provide a footway on one side of the road up to and past the railway bridge.

"It would require narrowing the carriageway to a single lane over the bridge.

"The estimated cost has been budgeted at over £500,000, which seems high but it has been benchmarked against other projects and reflects current material and labour costs."

With regard to the path heading north from the bridge towards the traffic island on the Kenilworth Road, he said the council was looking at a 780-metre stretch which would be a "park-style" path more in keeping with the rural setting.

Keaney explained traffic lights would be needed at the railway bridge if it was narrowed to a single lane but said the council had identified a Section 106 contribution of £100,000 that it could allocate to the scheme,

He said the first phase would see the path installed from the bridge up to Woodfield School and added meetings were happening with Warwick University to discuss potential funding.

Discussions are also taking place with HS2 regarding their community and environment fund and the matter is being considered by the cabinet member for city services, Councillor Patricia Hetherton.

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