Re-connecting Parishes near the A417 Missing Link project

Published

15 Feb 2024

We've invested over £130,000 from our Users and Communities fund, to improve connectivity and accessibility to Public Rights of Way near the A417.

Together with Gloucestershire County Council and Gloucestershire Local Access Forum, our Connecting Parishes project will reconnect multiple Public Rights of Ways between neighbouring parishes and the Cotswolds Way, which were previously severed by the Strategic Road Network.

We'll be focusing on improving active travel, ensuring there are more accessible and safer active travel options which will enhance local connectivity for communities and allow more people to enjoy the Cotswolds National Landscape (formerly known as the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty).

Working with Gloucestershire County Council, who are leading on delivering these projects, Connecting Parishes consists of 18 different sections of Public Rights of Way which will link into the Cotswold Scarp in parishes around the A417, some of which will link into Air Balloon Way.

Our Designated funding aims to build new infrastructure and enhance existing facilities to encourage more sustainable, non-motorised forms of transport and add real value to society.

Connecting Parishes aims to reconnect walking, cycling and horse riders with routes across the area, as well as improving accessibility for those who wish to use these routes. You may have noticed some work has already started. If these works have impacted you, we’d like to thank you for your patience and understanding while we deliver this important project, which will offer many benefits to local people and visitors.

Elsewhere in the South West, our funding has helped to deliver schemes to enhance biodiversity alongside the M4 and A303 in Wiltshire, the A46 in Bath and North East Somerset and the A35 in Dorset. It's also helped to deliver four defibrillators alongside the A417 in Gloucestershire, new road signage at Marston Magna and new play equipment for Queen Camel Playing Fields, both in Somerset. For more details about the Designated Funds programme click here, and for further information on our Social Value initiative click here.