New year, gathering energy for the work ahead. Please share our petition with friends on and off social media, let's get the numbers up over 2000!

A number of politicians are also beginning to take notice.  Please keep this up, be polite, and contact your local rep through this website [TheyWorkForYou] to ask for support for another path as a solution, to bring the DFI's Active Travel investment into the borough in the right place, to truly support new sustainable travel solutions - a win-win for the borough that values its wild coastline as a gem of natural beauty. Put in your postcode and it brings up your MLAs, MP and local councillors. Look for the one click button to email a whole list.  Now is the right time, Planning are still seeking our feedback, we are the stakeholders!

Just to recap our vision:

For Another Path is a movement of local residents whose vision for the future is to see not one, but two world-class tourist attractions bringing life into the Ards and North Down area. 

We wish to see the ANDB Council taking the opportunity offered by the DFI "Active Travel" investment to create an additional asset to the well-loved coastal path, in a greenway located inland, linking to the National Cycle Network and many local amenities, making active travel a truly compelling option for 21st century Northern Ireland.

We are asking Council to seek an outcome that makes the most efficient use of public funds for the long term. This must work inclusively for all, for those enjoying recreational walking and cycling, and those seeking a sustainable, healthy commute. It must not disadvantage any age group or range of abilities, and must also work for the delicate balance of flora and fauna in our borough, especially along this protected coastline.

We see the Coastal Path as the jewel in the crown of North Down's natural heritage.  Already internationally renowned as a tourist draw, this is a unique place where we can take time out of our busy lives and connect with wildness and the sea. It is part of a delicate coastal ecosystem on a lough that has triple protection from environmental law, and is susceptible to imbalance from any significant works. We cannot afford to get it wrong.

We also passionately believe in investing in new infrastructure for cycling in our borough, and its promotion as a safe, green alternative mode of transport.  We are eager to seize the opportunity to draw down DFI funding to advance this aim. When visitors from Europe arrive here we want them to find our coastal towns to be at the forefront of Active Travel in this region.

It is our firm belief, therefore, that the current planning application for a Greenway from Kinnegar to Donaghadee, will fall far short of the goal of advancing a genuine ‘greening’ of our transportation system and simultaneously risk damage to our unique and delicate coastal ecology.

The current choice of route is evidence of a dangerous short-term thinking, overlooking the increasing threat from coastal erosion and sea level rises. Locating the investment here runs the risk of DFI money being poured down the drain, or ‘into the sea’; concern over future maintenance costs alone should be self-evident after the recent storm damage of December 2021.

Therefore we are proposing the immediate withdrawal of the current application, and the identification of a new inland route that embraces all the advantages of investment, without damaging the coast, or exposing the investment itself to damage.

The Coast is Already available for leisure cycling: Commuting needs attention

In our view the coastal path is already a successful “shared way” - accessible since 2012 for those on bikes who wish to use it as a gently meandering cycle route, but successfully, at present, shared by strollers, dog walkers, birdwatchers, families and other users. Meanwhile the spaces dedicated to active commuting to and from Belfast are pitifully few, and grossly neglected. We can do better.

To truly transition to a more environmental future where active travel is a daily reality, we need cycle lanes to lead from our front doors to the shops, schools and playparks that are part of people’s every day lives. We need to make cycling to work in Belfast a truly time-efficient and attractive proposition. A route following the geographical contours of the coastal path does not fulfil this aim. A cycle lane on the A2 that stops at Ballyrobert, leaving no provision all the way to Holywood, is also crying out for a serious rethink.

A new cycling route inland that is more straight and direct not only offers this crucial commuting benefit, but also has the potential to attract those whose recreation includes cycling at speed. Created as a backbone of a new system with many tributaries in and around the local shops, schools and communities, this inland greenway could herald in a new, truly cycling-friendly era in our borough, rivalling the infrastructure solutions seen in the Netherlands, Germany and beyond.

AECOM, the appointed developers, are experienced in exploring and problem-solving greenway routes, indeed they successfully redesigned the Ballyholme to Donaghadee section of this planning application when the National Trust blocked access to the land they have responsibility for, around Ballymacormick Point and Orlock. We contend that the rest of this coastline avails of the same environmental protections as the National Trust area, and should be treated the same.

The Belfast lough coastline boasts a triple protection status due to its exceptional natural features. Despite its historic connection with industry it has been designated an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI); it is a Special Protected Area (SPA) for its diversity of landscape and species, and a Ramsar site due to its international importance in overwintering birds, as well as resident waders and nesting populations of seabirds such as arctic terns and guillemots. None of this should be put at risk.

Active Travel means meaningful transport links

Why try and reinvent the purpose of one established asset to the borough, when we could have two?

The widening and straightening of the coastal path proposed in the current planning application is designed, according to the 2017 Feasibility Study undertaken by AECOM, primarily to encourage greater cycling numbers along this route. We maintain that its projected impact on alleviating the pressures on commuting has not been evidenced, nor have gains in footfall in the town been adequately proved.

To meet the criteria for the DFI funding and genuinely encourage more people to take up active travel as part of their daily lives, we are proposing that this investment be put into joining the Greenway routes inland in a new, world quality green transport solution.

Why stop short of aspiring to become the first borough in NI that brings its cycling infrastructure up to world standards? Creating green and attractive cycle paths as close to homes and communities as possible, to make meaningful transport links.

To cut down on fossil fuel powered transport significantly by offering people genuinely attractive cycle options.

To deliver for people's aspirations by linking up shops and schools to their front door, and then lead on to commuting routes quickly into Belfast, would stand the test of time better than widening the wild and rambling coastal path, when its very location is exposed to the destructive force of storms and coastal erosion, as the storms of winter 2021 have reminded us.

Why make do, when you could have two?

We dream bigger.