Workers could begin reshaping Dunkeld Road as early as next year as council chiefs aim to make it easier to walk and cycle, it has emerged.
Uncertainty has surrounded the project since it emerged funding partner Sustrans had reduced guaranteed funding from around £6.5m to less than £420,000.
The project has been beset with delays after public consultation work took place around the plans in 2019.
Project managers now, however, believe they could be in a position to start work as early as 2023. That is provided they receive more Sustrans cash.
Work starting is also dependent on other projects and input from local groups.
One Dunkeld Road stretch is known as ‘motor mile’ due to the numbers of car dealer forecourts located along it.
The updated position comes after officials working on the project answered our freedom of information enquiry.
But while earlier versions of the much talked about plan promised a “fully segregated cycle lane” planners have now promised a design that will prioritise walkers.
What is the Dunkeld Road ‘corridor’?
The changes will ultimately make it easier to walk, cycle and wheel across the whole city, project managers claim.
The Dunkeld Road changes are considered the first part of a wider reimagining of travel in the city named Perth People Place.
The long standing plans to create a “multi modal corridor” have been beset with delays and staff departures.
The project has also been subject to a review in light of the pandemic.
The updated ‘corridor’ design will accommodate all kinds of active travel, with “walking at the top,” the papers show.
What will Dunkeld Road ‘corridor’ look like?
The latest design for the changes is still be shared with the general public, but officials say they have shared a “high level project design development” with local groups and individuals.
The local authority published artist’s impressions in 2019, featuring cycle lanes, walkers, play equipment and public transport.
But project managers moved to distance themselves from the drawings after they prompted local opposition.
Where will the ‘corridor’ run to and from?
In 2021, council officials said the corridor would run from River Almond to Perth train station.
Project managers declined to say if that remains part of the current plan.
They would confirm that “Perth People Place” is a major project that will “transform the way people move around the city, promoting sustainable and active travel.”
The work will focus “on the Dunkeld Road corridor and surrounding neighbourhoods.”
Why are the cycle lane proposals so sensitive?
Perth city chiefs initially won funding for the project alongside colleagues from Angus council in 2019.
Officials in Angus have made more substantial progress, but have also encountered stiff local opposition from some quarters, though not all.
As mentioned, not everyone in Perth welcomed the initial Dunkeld Road drawings.
In addition, Perth council chiefs either scrapped or didn’t introduce many pandemic plans to support walking and cycling after local opposition – despite having won funding for them.
Local active travel supporting groups dispute the extent of public opposition to these changes, but the experience appears to have left councillors very sensitive to the way city residents view cycling and walking projects.
Especially only weeks away from a local government election on May 5.
How much will it cost?
Again, there are no hard and fast answers here.
Officials said in an answer to a separate freedom of information request in 2021 they estimated the total budget for the Dunkeld Road project at £18.5m.
But a year later they would only share that the agreed minimum budget allocation from Sustrans for the Dunkeld Road Corridor is £6.45million.
That is an agreement “in principle” only with officials still dependent on making further applications to Sustrans.
Sustrans officials, however, consider the work a “priority” and are anticipating further funding applications from the local authority.
