More than £125,000 has been given to West Lothian Council this year to help open up green links in the county - connecting isolating villages and re-wilding some of the county’s most wounded land.
The final meeting of the council’s Executive before the summer recess heard that two proposals which have been in long term development have received extra funding to push them along.
Sustrans, which promotes safe and active travel across the UK, has given backing for two major projects to continue in West Lothian.
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As part of its Places for Everyone budget £112,000 has been awarded to develop key links to Bathgate Town Centre as part of the Bathgate Meadows Nature Park project.
The new parkland will help rejuvenate the land alongside the Bathgate Burn. The site between Wester Inch, Blackburn, and Bathgate town centre will connect the areas with a wildlife-rich park - providing safe walking cycling routes into and through Bathgate as part of the wider east/ west cycling route development Sustrans would like to see.
The Bathgate Burn project is a wide-ranging redevelopment of former industrial sites and involves the council Forth Rivers Trust as will as input from the Scottish Government and national charities including Sustrans.
Councillors also heard that £14,533 has been set aside for the designs of a footpath and bridge link connecting Stoneyburn to Fauldhouse.
Branded as the Island Village by those living in Stoneyburn, villagers have fought a long campaign to have a safe route connecting them to Fauldhouse where the nearest GP facilities are and as well as shops.
The full construction costs for the route could eventually top close to £1m but design plans funded will bring it closer than before. Sustrans has backed the safe cycle/footpath including a bridge over the busy A706.
The only road link between the two villages is a winding B-road which remains a 60mph road with heavy foliage along both sides of the road and no pavements.
Council engineers are working with Sustrans and local landowners on route planning.
At a previous meeting of local councillors on the Fauldhouse and Breich Valley Local area Committee the council’s Design Engineering Manager, Ronnie Fisher said: “This type of project is eligible for 100% design fees and 70% of the construction cost through Places for Everyone grant funding. Funding through this route is therefore the most prudent option for the council, especially if the desire is to provide a bridge crossing over the A706.”
