Regeneration proposals for a direct route for walkers and cyclists between Keighley town centre and Shipley have been unveiled.

Design work is now complete for the route, known as the Airedale Greenway, according to the latest report on the progress of the Airedale Masterplan, which aims to rejuvenate the Aire Valley.

Councillors pored over the plans - which suggest a dozen new links to ease journeys between Shipley, Cottingley, Bingley, and Keighley - at a meeting of the Shipley Area Committee in St Peter's Church last night.

The Leeds-Liverpool Canal towpath currently provides a route from Shipley but falls short of Keighley, while on-road cycle lanes run parallel with the towpath but in fragmented sections.

The route alongside the canal will be extended into Keighley town centre to link in Keighley College and the Dalton Lane regeneration area, while a major gap in cycle lanes will be filled in to improve access to Cottingley.

A number of key sites in the area will be better connected by the Greenway. More direct links will benefit people travelling to and from Salt Grammar School, Beckfoot School, Bingley Grammar School and Shipley College. Another highly anticipated element of the Airedale Masterplan, Bingley Technology Business Park, will also gain from stronger links.

Blueprints for the £30 million hi-tech business park were approved in July and the report states that developers, Bingley Technology Park Ltd, aim to begin work on site in spring. The first of the 28 work-live units should be available in the late summer.

Robert Brough, regeneration officer at the Airedale Partnership, the body driving the Masterplan, commented on the Greenway ahead of yesterday's meeting.

He said: "The idea is to give people an opportunity to walk to work. We have identified a route and we are developing that by working alongside partners such as British Waterways, Sustrans, the Council, the Environment Agency and Sport Keighley.

"One idea is for signage along the route with travelling times on so that people know how long it takes to cycle between places.

"It's a mixture of off-road and on-road and gives people the opportunity to use the most direct route into town and to use cycle lanes on the main road."

Councillor David Heseltine (Con, Bingley), chairman of the area committee, said: "We want people on cycles but comments from people using the canal towpath suggest that they (pedestrians) are intimidated by the cyclists so we want something from this scheme that all can use."

Alan Sykes, of Harden Parish Council, said: "I think we have become obsessed with cycleways. No one in their right mind is going to cycle or walk to work, or the shops, in weather like this.

"We need to look at the importance of these nonsense cycleways and footpaths."

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