The creation of a walking and cycling route between Broughty Ferry and Monifieth will be a “world class asset”, according to Dundee Cycling Forum.
On Monday, Dundee City Council’s city development committee agreed to start a consultation with the public which could lead to the creation of a direct walking and cycling route between Dundee and Angus.
The £9 million project would see the coastal path upgraded with new street lighting, and will connect Windmill Gardens to Castle Green and create a new bridge over the Dighty Burn.
Donald Baddon from Dundee Cycling Forum welcomed the move and said: “It will be brilliant.
“The path goes along quite a nice journey and people will be attracted to come to Dundee because it is a fantastic, scenic route.
“It will be a world class asset for Dundee and the design is fantastic.
“If this is an example of the ambition for the city then brilliant, because there are a lot of areas that could do with this infrastructure too.
“We could see the city centre to Stobswell and up to Lochee connected to join up all the communities.
“The only disappointment is the path will not be segregated for the full length.
“A consultation asked path users what they wanted, and the walkers wanted to be segregated from the cyclists.
“That is being done on the Esplanade part, but not for the full length, which is what people asked for.”
A number of concerns were raised at the meeting on how much the proposal would increase traffic on the surrounding streets.
Part of the proposals could see Mill Street in the Ferry closed off entirely to cars, which will then be rerouted via Brook Street.
However council officers said the impact would be “negligible” and insisted it was important to “redress transport hierarchy” in the city in favour of sustainable modes of transport.
Speaking at the meeting Ewan Macnaughton, head of sustainable transport and roads at Dundee City Council, said: “At the heart of this is the need to redress the transport hierarchy so cars are at the bottom and sustainable forms like walking are at the top.
“We need to redress the road space allocation so it is more convenient for sustainable forms of transport.
“It is part of the Scottish Government’s objective to reduce car use by 20% and increase sustainable forms of transport.
“The displacement effect is negligible because there will be no increase in traffic generated by this proposal – it is a minor rerouting that does not require a transport assessment.
“However traffic volumes have been reviewed and it was low.”
The proposal was passed unanimously by councillors and will now go out to members of the public as a consultation.
If no objections are received from residents, work on the project is expected to start in the spring.
Tayside Contracts will also begin upgrading the street lighting between Stannergate and Douglas Terrace in June, and this is expected to take three months to complete.
