WARRINGTON Council have formally submitted a purchase order for land earmarked as a cycle and foot path in Burtonwood.

The £1.6 million proposal aims to improve access to and from the new Omega employment site and Burtonwood along Clay Lane and Burtonwood Road.

This will involve acquiring land along the two routes, together with land adjacent to properties known as Old Lodge Farm, Ivy Cottage and Fingerpost Farm.

As well as making the compulsory purchase order, Warrington Council are also due to submit this to the Secretary of State for Transport for confirmation.

If confirmed, the order will authorise the Acquiring Authority to purchase the proposed land for the purpose of ‘improving Burtonwood Road and Clay Lane to incorporate an integral cycle track with a right of way on foot’.

Construction is expected to begin in early 2020 if progress is made with the acquisition.

The improvements will be funded by a successful Local Growth Fund bid from the Cheshire and Warrington Local Enterprise Partnership, a contribution from the Omega s106 Agreement and borrowing from Warrington Borough Council.

In a document stating their reasons for the improvements, Warrington Council said the development will ‘increase the numbers of people walking and cycling, thereby improving public health’.

The paths will also mark a ‘transfer from cars to walking and cycling, thus reducing traffic congestion and traffic emissions’

This will, in turn ‘improve road safety’.

All parties who will be impacted directly by the land acquisition have been served with notices of confirmation, and notices have also been erected at the site.

The purchase order and accompanying map can be viewed between 9am and 5pm Monday-Friday (4pm on a Tuesday) at Contact Warrington on Horsemarket Street.

A public engagement event is expected to be held if the council are successful in acquiring the land and the scheme is ready to be constructed.

Any objection to the order must be made in writing to the Secretary of State for Transport and the National Transport Casework Team at Tyneside House in Newcastle-upon-Tyne before Friday, May 17.