There is fresh hope on the horizon that a new cycle link between Muchalls and Stonehaven could be on the cards. Aberdeenshire Council plans to bid for a share of extra funding which is being made available nationally for such projects.

The original bid to Sustrans – the charity enabling people to choose healthier, cleaner and cheaper journeys – included a £30,000 scheme for this financial year which would have been matched by a similar amount from Nestrans, the Transport Partnership for Aberdeen City and Shire. Aberdeenshire Council was not funding the project. This £60,000 would have been used to take a feasibility study undertaken by BEAR Scotland on behalf of Transport Scotland and take it to the stage of detailed design and costed tender.

This would have been used to inform a bid for £400,000 funding (£200,000 sought from Sustrans, £200,000 from other sources) for construction in 2015/16. The £400,000 figure is based on the feasibility but would most likely have changed as the detailed design was undertaken.

Unfortunately this bid for this year failed so no work is being done on the project.

The route that was being shown on the BEAR feasibility study showed an upgrade to the existing footpath. Aberdeenshire Council officers have argued unsuccessfully that any path should be remote from the live carriageway and be behind the fence line but this has not been supported by Transport Scotland. If the bid had been successful one of the first actions officers had in mind was to revisit this view with Transport Scotland.

As mentioned however, there is one note of optimism… Sustrans has been given an extra £5m to spend this financial year and the first action will be to revisit projects that failed the first time around to see if they could still be delivered. As this year was design, documents, tender etc this is still entirely feasible before 31 March 2015. Council officers are expecting an approach from them soon.

On how any path would physically link with Stonehaven it would be via the cycle way behind the barrier on the Den of Logie Road then on road past the Golf Club and into Stonehaven on the road network.