Proposals for the development of a new greenway in East Antrim have taken a step forward with funding confirmed by the Department for Infrastructure for works in Ballyclare.
Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council has been successful in securing £263k for a section of a new £3.9m greenway, a walking and cycling route from Doagh to Larne.
The Department had requested details of any greenway and small scale Active Travel projects on council-owned land that are ready to “take forward to construction in-year”.
Land for the proposed section between Avondale Drive to Henryville is already owned by the borough council.
The project would also include the replacement of the pedestrian bridge between the Ballyclare’s Sixmile Leisure Centre and War Memorial Park.
However, Mid and East Antrim Ulster Unionist Councillor Andrew Wilson, a Knockagh representative, said in an online post:
“It’s still a frustration of mine that we couldn’t get the Greenisland to Monkstown greenway over the line.”
In January 2018, Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council backed a proposal saying they could not support any proposal to locate the section of the greenway between Greenisland and Monkstown.
The local authority cited the “extent of housing development in Newtownabbey along the line of the proposed Greenisland to Monkstown Greenway Scheme and the potential loss of amenity and privacy, together with the likely detrimental impact of anti-social behaviour on the local communities living along the proposed greenway”.