A new footpath has been created to link Hackney Way with Elm Grove.
The footpath, which was completed on Friday, now allows people to pass the skatepark and cross the open space between the two streets.
The route, which is used by schoolchildren and residents, has been frequently flooded and swamped in the past and so the new footpath is an important improvement. Funding was provided by the government’s Playbuilder scheme. The path has been some 18 months in the making, as cllr Bill Braid explained.
“I’ve wanted a path there for a long time, so I spoke to Les Fry [former town clerk] about it and he got onto County Hall about a government scheme called Playbuilders,” he said.
“We were told there was government money for it and I got permission from Persimmon, and then we discovered after the new government that Michael Gove had withdrawn the funding. I actually had put an agenda item down on the town council to see if we couldn’t find the money to do it ourselves and the night before the meeting it was announced that Michael Gove had reintroduced the funding but at a reduced rate.”
Fortunately Westbury’s path is one of the schemes to receive some of the funding. Bill added, “We were devastated when it was withdrawn, but over the moon when it came back.”
