Villagers claim planned cycleway will have a "detrimental aesthetic impact" as local authority sides with majority and moves forward with proposal

A local authority has pledged to step forward with plans to build a Greenway active travel route, including a cycleway, through a village despite concerns and criticism from some who say it will have a "detrimental aesthetic impact".

The Greater Cambridgeshire Partnership reported that the consultation shows 64 per cent of people support the scheme — which would see the Haslingfield Greenway off-road active travel link into Cambridge through Grantchester — in contrast to 73 per cent of people from the village who responded to the public consultation expressing their opposition to the proposals.

The local authority has pledged to move forward with the plan, the BBC reports, emphasising that the overall mood was one of support, members of the board suggesting that regardless of whether a cycleway and active travel infrastructure was built people would still walk and cycle through the village, so it might as well be "as safe as possible".

The chair of Grantchester Parish Council had expressed concerns about the route's potentially "detrimental aesthetic impact" on the village and argued it would be a "democratic deficit" if the village's consultation responses were separated from the overall picture.

However, the local authority decided to move forward with the proposals, Mike Davey the Labour leader of Cambridge City Council suggesting Grantchester is a "victim of its own beauty" and that people will cycle or walk through it regardless of whether there is an active travel route available.

Agreeing, Peter Blake, GCP's transport director said it makes sense to make the route "as safe as possible for all road users".

Detailed designs will come next, local cycling campaign group Cam Cycle (the Cambridge Cycling Campaign) previously warning that it is "hugely concerned that the proposals overall do little to improve the existing situation for active travel users".

"Although significant investment is proposed for the Greenway, the designs presented will result in substandard infrastructure that is not fit for purpose and does not align with the overarching Greenway vision to make local journeys safer and easier and to deliver pleasant and sustainable routes into and out of Cambridge and for leisure purposes," Cam Cycle has said previously.

"The proposals fail to address the retention of the pinch point at Burnt Close which introduces unnecessary difficulties for those on larger cycles and could create conflict between path users. We also still believe that a modal filter on Grantchester Road would be the most effective, cost-efficient and environmentally-beneficial option for the route, leaving the Baulk Path as it is."

The group published a blog post on alternative options ahead of last year's consultation, highlighting concerns that the campaign will hope will be addressed with the publication of more detailed plans.