£50 million, four competitors and only one winner. The polls are open. Have you voted yet?
Two projects to create new cycle routes in Bath and Norton Radstock are part of the 79 schemes UK-wide that will happen if Sustrans’ Connect2 wins, so please vote to bring a share of £50 million to our area.

You can play your part in winning the bid by voting and asking everyone you know to vote too. Just a few moments of your time could make all the difference.

You can vote online now at www.sustransconnect2.org.uk. Telephone voting will begin on Friday 7 December. All voting concludes at 12 noon on Monday 10 December. The telephone number will be able on the sustrans website.

Two formerly glorious but long disused railway tunnels will become part of an exciting cycle and walking route between Midford and Bath. There are three opportunities to vote for this project to win the funding – online now, and by landline and mobile from 7 December. All voting concludes at midday 10 December, with the winner announced on 12 December.

The Two Tunnels Greenway Project will create something to enjoy for cycle commuters, families, walkers and tourists from a series of disconnected parts of the old Somerset and Dorset railway, running south from Bath and beneath Combe Down. It will link to the Bath-Bristol cycle path at the northern end and also give commuters from Midsomer Norton and Radstock a pleasant, flat route into Bath from the South.

The project is part of a national project by sustainable transport charity Sustrans and is supported by Bath & North East Somerset Council. Sustrans has battled its way into a shortlist of four organisations competing for the £50 million pot to fund projects around the country, under the National Lottery’s The People’s Millions scheme.

The Sustrans project is called Connect2. If it wins in December, it will see hundreds of miles of walking and cycling routes spring up around the UK – providing extra bridges, extra links – improving travel and reducing our carbon footprint. Two Tunnels is just one of the many projects included in this scheme.

The multi-user path will join Bath and Midford by a virtually flat system of tunnels and impressive overland paths following the existing disused railway. The route makes a wide sweep through Oldfield Park, surfaces in the secretive Lyncombe Vale and finally emerges in beautiful open country at Tucking Mill, before joining the long distance Sustrans NCN24 route at Midford.
The campaign promoters expect the ‘Two Tunnels’ route to benefit businesses, residents and visitors. They believe it will encourage visitors to stay for more than a simple two-hour visit to the city centre, and make more use of what Bath has to offer. It will also secure the future for the impressive railway structures on this famous old route, and offers a chance to make good use of some of Bath’s more under-appreciated assets, reclaiming them for residents and visitors.
However, the route first has to be built, and while much of the work has already been done courtesy of the Victorian engineers who built the railway, it will cost an estimated £1.8 million to complete.

The businesses of Bath & North East Somerset can help by alerting their staff and their clients to this opportunity to vote for something good for Bath & North East Somerset. Organisers are asking businesses to ask their staff and clients to sign up for a voting reminder at www.sustransconnect2.org.uk.

For more information on the Two Tunnels Greenway, see:http://www.twotunnels.org.uk/

For information on Sustrans Connect2, visit: http://www.sustransconnect2.org.uk/