New £15k footpath branded 'useless' - because it's only yards from main pavement

A new path built just yards from another footpath has been branded “useless” by residents.

Redcar and Cleveland Council built the new walkway across a patch of grass to link two other footpaths on Flatts Lane in Normanby.

But the new walkway - part of £15,000 works by the council - is only a matter of yards away from a main pavement which already connects the two paths.

Normanby resident Dennis Plews said: “I can’t see the point in it. The path is useless, it’s a waste, it’s only yards away from the pavement.

“What was wrong with people using the path that’s already there?”

Dennis Plews beside work progressing on the path

The work has been carried out as part of the council’s £2m Boroughwide Public Realm Programme, which set out improvements across Redcar and Cleveland and was agreed by the authority’s cabinet in October.

After public consultations on the whole scheme, £15,000 was set aside to upgrade the birdsmouth fencing with decorative railings and construct the footpath at the Flatts Lane site, opposite Hollywalk Avenue.

But Mr Plews, a retired draughtsman and project manager in the petro-chemical and oil and gas industries, says the money could have been much better spent improving footpaths just hundreds of yards from the site.

The new path (looking towards Flatts Lane in Normanby)

The 67-year-old continued: “The path that runs alongside Bankfields School is almost completely overgrown.

"Only one person can get through, uncomfortably, at the moment when the path should be wide enough for three.

“There is always a load of rubbish dropped down there as well. If there was money available to improve the area, then that might have been a better place to start.”

A resident on nearby West Street said: “I don’t know where the money has come from, but if it’s council tax then it’s a huge waste of our money.”

Cllr Steve Kay, Cabinet Member for Highways, Planning and Transport, said: “The construction of a new section of footpath is to replace the well-worn mud ‘path’ that had been used for some time.

“The new footpath, as well as the installation of brand new ornamental railings to replace the existing wooden fencing, is part of the council’s Boroughwide Public Realm Programme.

“This was approved by cabinet in October last year and consists of 56 projects, selected by councillors, spread across the whole of the borough.

“We are hoping that these new developments will provide an uplift for the area and will be easier to maintain in the future.”