Funds Received - £700.00
The grant from Blackhill Windfarm Community Fund has certainly played a major role in moving our EBGR project forwards. We now refer to the project as the Borders Greenway.
We have formed a Community Consultation Group which is well supported by community groups along the route from Melrose to Eyemouth. The group is led by a Steering Group which meets regularly in Gavinton Village Hall and elsewhere.
Our efforts have led to South of Scotland Enterprise and Scottish Borders Council commissioning a professional Feasibility Study of the route by Atkins Transport Consultants. This excellent piece of work was recently completed.
Full details of the Borders Greenway project are available here. This document includes links to a recently completed feasibility study, maps and photographs of project activities, and much else besides.
The BWCF grant has been invaluable in enabling these startup activities, and to date, we have used the fund for:
- Venue hire and refreshments for meetings with SBC officials, consultants (Atkins) investigating, route feasibility, the Borders Greenway steering and community collaboration groups, and other community groups
- Purchase of maps/marker pens to inform discussion on preferred existing walking and cycling routes between the main communities mainly following the old railway line from Tweedbank to Reston, and on to Eyemouth
Together with groups of local residents, we have completed a reconnaissance walk‑through of the entire route (over 50 miles) following existing paths, quiet roads, and some short sections of farmland. We have documented our findings to inform discussion on issues which need attention before the route is safe for public use. We will soon conduct a similar reconnaissance cycle‑through of the preferred cycle route, mainly following quiet roads.
We anticipate a significant increase in promotional activities once SBC has secured initial funding to progress the project. Transport Scotland has assigned ten percent of their annual budget to ‘active travel’ projects, and, with a completed feasibility study, SBC considers there are reasonable prospects of the project becoming a reality.
