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Chichester District Council has chosen its preferred options for a cycling/walking route through the city – though it may be years before anything is put in place.

During a meeting of the cabinet on Tuesday (September 5), members discussed plans for the route which will run along Westgate between the Orchard Street and Sherborne Road roundabouts, and from the west side of the Fishbourne Road East pedestrian railway bridge to the A27 underpass.

As highways authority, work on the scheme – which has be labelled high priority – will be carried out by West Sussex County Council.

While the plan is for most of the route to be paid for using grant money from Active Travel England, it is hoped that the section running west of the Sherborne Road roundabout to east of the pedestrian railway bridge will be paid for using S106 contributions from the developer at Whitehouse Farm.

Chichester District Council has chosen its preferred options for a cycling/walking route through the city - though it may be years before anything is put in place. Image: West Sussex County Council

Cabinet members chose two of the four design options on offer – Option 2 and Option A.

Option 2 includes the narrowing of Westgate east of the Sherborne Road roundabout to accommodate a two-way segregated cycle path.

And Option A includes the introduction of a bus gate to restrict access to the section between Parklands Road and Henty Gardens to buses, taxis, and local residents only.

Jonathan Brown, cabinet member for environmental strategy, said he supported the scheme but added that funding was ‘likely to be a number of years off’.

He told the meeting: “The recommendation to support [options] 2A is really about pushing for a scheme that is most likely to encourage people who do not currently walk or cycle to start doing so.”

The county council put the proposals out to public consultation earlier this summer and the results are being examined.

Sarah Sharp (Green & Local Alliance Group, Chichester South) said she was ‘puzzled’ by the council’s preference for Option 2.

Mrs Sharp, who is also a county councillor, said there didn’t appear to be a need for a two-way cyclepath and had concerns about it linking to the Sherborne Road junction, which she called ‘dangerous’.

Mr Brown said he would ask the county council to take safety concerns into consideration.

Preferred options for cycling and walking route through Chichester identified