{"id":163954,"date":"2025-09-27T14:28:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-27T14:28:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/163954\/"},"modified":"2025-09-27T14:28:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-27T14:28:12","slug":"is-arbroath-embracing-its-new-14m-cycle-track","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/163954\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Arbroath embracing its new \u00a314m cycle track?"},"content":{"rendered":"

A \u00a314m active travel path running through Arbroath has opened, after 18 months of controversy over its construction in the town.<\/p>\n

The \u201cA Place for Everyone\u201d project \u2013 which is designed to promote wheeling, walking and cycling \u2013 has cut into previously dualled parts of the A92, effectively halving the amount of road space.<\/p>\n

The majority of the cost was covered by a Scottish Government-backed Sustrans scheme.<\/p>\n

\"\u00a310.7mSTV News\u00a310.7m of the \u00a314m \u2018A Place for Everyone\u2019 project was covered by public money from Sustrans. STV News<\/p>\n

It\u2019s designed to increase footfall in the town, make Arbroath more accessible, and encourage more environmentally-friendly modes of travel.<\/p>\n

However, some local residents and businesses have questioned whether 18 months\u2019 worth of disruption in the town centre, while the path was getting built, was worth it.<\/p>\n

\"Arbroath'sSTV NewsArbroath\u2019s famous Pleasureland Amusements are at one end of the town\u2019s new active travel path. STV News<\/p>\n

Todd O\u2019Brien, who manages the Pleasureland Amusements near the town\u2019s beach, said: \u201cIt was a solution in search of a problem.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think the demand from cyclists was there in the first place, and I think that the existing road served cyclists not too badly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some businesses at the other end of the town faced the longest-running restrictions.<\/p>\n

Stacey Caird, who runs a massage therapy clinic at Guthrie Port, said: \u201cIt affected me, and many businesses in the town, quite badly.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, they closed complete access to our road for six months, giving us three days\u2019 notice.<\/p>\n

\"TheSTV NewsThe dual carriageway that previously ran through Arbroath has been turned into a single carriageway. STV News<\/p>\n

\u201cI think they\u2019ve done a lovely job, but it\u2019s just a shame to get there, what\u2019s been lost and what\u2019s happened in the town, it\u2019s going to take years to recover from that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Councillor Tommy Stewart, Communities Convenor at Angus Council, told STV News he understood that businesses had faced some disruption but that contractors had kept that \u201cto a minimum\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cAny infrastructure project that\u2019s going to be major like this, is always going to have some form of disruption at it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were people against it, but there were also plenty of people for it.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou go across to Europe now and they\u2019ve got these cycle and walking lanes everywhere. This now joins in with the National Cycle Network and it could be expanded further.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"WhatsApp<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A \u00a314m active travel path running through Arbroath has opened, after 18 months of controversy over its construction…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":163955,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-163954","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-cycling","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=163954"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163954\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/163955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=163954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=163954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=163954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}