Ten months after Coast News published Davistown Progress Association’s impassioned plea for completion of a shared pathway/cycleway at Davistown, Central Coast Council is to complete a 320m section of the “missing link” pathway along Malinya Ave.
The move follows a campaign orchestrated by Davistown Progress Association, during which more than a thousand signatures were collected on a petition calling for the work, and approaches were made to Member for Robertson, Lucy Wicks, to point Council in the right direction for securing Federal grants.
Progress Association President, Jenny McCulla, said it was good to see the campaign had yielded results, with the project to be funded through the Federal Government’s Local Roads and Community Infrastructure Program.
The project will be the first stage in completing a missing section of the pathway between Henderson Rd and Coomal Ave, which has forced residents and schoolchildren to walk or cycle along the dangerously narrow Malinya Rd.
Council Director Infrastructure Services, Boris Bolgoff, said Stage 1 works will see the 320m section of the shared pathway completed in the current financial year.
“Our community has requested this project which will deliver a key missing link of the NSW Coastline Cycleway,” Bolgoff said.
“The Stage 1 works begin the pathway from Coomal Ave towards Henderson Rd.
“Subject to securing grant funding, Stage 2 works will take place in 2021-22 and see the new section of shared pathway span 585 metres to Henderson Rd and will complete the link between Davistown and Kincumber,” Bolgoff said.
Council Administrator, Dick Persson, said the project would deliver on key objectives outlined in the Central Coast Bike Plan and Central Coast Pedestrian Access and Mobility Plan (PAMP).
“The Central Coast is hard to beat for walking and cycling and this new section of shared pathway will complete an important ‘missing link’ and is sure to be popular with both locals and visitors,” Persson said.
Member for Robertson, Lucy Wicks, said she was thrilled to see the important project underway.
“(The Progress Association) has been fighting to make this safety upgrade a reality with over 1,300 signatures on its petition for a shared pathway along Malinya Rd,” Wicks said.
Stage 1 will be completed at a cost of $911,892, with future stages of the project dependent on securing additional grant funding.
McCulla said it was pleasing to see work underway and she hoped future stages of the project would include a stretch of road between Malinya Rd and Emora Ave, so Davistown children can safely travel “the back way” along Coomal Ave to Brisbania Public School.
Terry Collins