Consultation underway on Chisholm Trail in Cambridge

A public consultation is now underway on Cambridge’s long awaited Chisholm Trail. The project, first proposed 17 years ago, will provide a segregated cycle link from the north to the south of the city.

The Chisholm Trail was planned out by Jim Chisholm in 1998 to link Addenbrooke’s Hospital in the south with the science parks in the north, wending its way via the railway station. £8.4m of funding from the City Deal has been allocated to it in addition to £4.5m for a new bridge over the Cam at Ditton Meadows which has already been approved. Should the trail receive approval and the permissions needed to go ahead, the aim is to complete it within five years.

Chisholm said: "It is very humbling that the route now seems to bear my name. I'm sure that, once complete, many will be regularly cycling or walking part of the route.”

Councillor Lewis Herbert, chairman of the City Deal board, told the Cambridge News that the Chisholm Trail would transform daily cycling options.

"As the Greater Cambridge area develops, we want to make travelling easier and more reliable to avoid increasing congestion and make cycling safer, a better ride and more fun.

"We know about the hold-ups people currently have travelling around Cambridge. We want to hear people's views on these proposals which have been a long-term ambition in Cambridge for many years. These are proposals at the moment and may change as we hear people's views.”

A number of public consultation events are to be held between November 10 and November 19. Details are on the City Deal’s Chisholm Trail page. You can also have your say via Facebook and Twitter, while an online survey will be open until November 30.

One area of contention appears to be the Leper Chapel off Newmarket Road – one of the city’s oldest buildings. The conservation charity Cambridge Past Present & Future and the Friends of Coldham's Common have spoken out over how close the trail will pass by. The former’s chairman – while expressing support for the trail in general – described the current plans as ‘an invasion of a Grade I listed property’.

Councillor Tim Bick, City Deal assembly leader, has acknowledged the Leper Chapel "is the most sensitive aspect of the whole route" but also said that it was an opportunity to make the building more publicly accessible.

"The route we're consulting on is only what we're consulting on – we're not closed to other views," he said.