Loch Earn Railway Path highly commended

The Loch Earn Railway Path has been 'highly commended' by judges in the Transport Planning Society's inaugral People's Award for 2018.

The Loch Earn Railway Path is a previously non-existent off-road link with Comrie (in the Strathearn region of Perthshire), which gives locals and visitors the option to travel actively between the villages, without accessing a dangerous trunk road. The project received funding from Rural Perth & Kinross LEADER and Forth Valley & Lomond LEADER. The path was championed by a group of community volunteers called the St Fillans Community Paths Group.

The People’s Award, launched earlier this year, showcases transport planning initiatives that have made a significant difference to local people. The Transport Planning Society invited communities from across the UK to nominate projects that had put local engagement at the forefront in the planning and delivery of schemes.

The Sevenoaks Town Partnership Vintage Bus Service and the Sevenoaks Route 8 Bus Service were awarded the top prize at the annual Transport Planning Day, hosted by the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) in London.

Lynda Addison OBE, Chair of the Transport Planning Society, said:

"The People’s Award is a great platform for us to recognise that when good transport planning and strong community engagement combine, they deliver lasting benefit to society. These winners have made a genuine contribution to improving people’s accessibility, quality of life and wellbeing and have made such a huge difference to their local communities.

"Fundamentally, it is community involvement that makes good transport planning. In fact, delivering exemplary community engagement will make a good scheme great."

Stephen Joseph, former Chief Executive of the Campaign for Better Transport and Chair of the judges, said:

"We received entries from communities across the country, and reaching a decision on the final winner was very difficult. Each nomination demonstrated that schemes, such as the eventual winners in Sevenoaks, that had been developed with the community had made a positive impact both to the local economy and to residents’ quality of life. This is incredibly important at a time when we must encourage a move away from car dependency.

"We’re delighted to be able to recognise their vision and their hard work."

Visit the Transport Planning Society website for more information.

You can watch a short video from Perth & Kinross LEADER all about the project below.