The Nantwich section of the Greenway as it runs alongside Barony Road and Barony Park. The patch of soil on the right of the new pathway has been sown with grass seed and will eventually match the verge and the parkland.

WORK on the Greenway, a new pedestrians' / cyclists' pathway linking Crewe and Nantwich, is making progress (the published finishing date is November 2011). And some of my fears when I wrote the original Letter from Nantwich have proved to be unfounded.

   For instance, the Greenway does a neat diversion around the toilets (actually on the Consultation Plan issued by Cheshire East Council in September 2010 if you look closely enough) so we will be keeping one of the three serving the town after all.

   The trees adjacent to this facility (right) have been neatly bypassed - and so will not need to be felled - by squeezing the Greenway into the space between the trees and the fencing of the . . . I was going to say tennis courts, but that area of the sporting facility also now includes an Astro football pitch.   

   A feature of the Greenway work are safety islands in the centre of the roads (that's one of the two Barony Road ones pictured left). Pictured below, right is the Beam Street/ Coronation Gardens section of the Greenway.

   This comment prompted me to have a further look at a Connect 2 publication issued by Cheshire East Council last year and I saw that the route to Nantwich Riverside does, indeed, go down Davenport Avenue, etc!

   A footnote with the map says "Element 5: Greenway and residential roads from the north side of Nantwich bypass to Riverside at Mill Island, including controlled crossings of the bypass and Middlewich Road and an uncontrolled crossing of Barony Road".

   In fact, according to that leaflet, the Greenway reaches the Riverside somewhere around the swimming baths but, then again, Mill Island is off the bottom of the picture.

THE new work is looking fine at the moment, but how long will it be before one of the utilities wants to dig it up to lay some pipes . . . ?

A tree-lined section of the Greenway

THIS section of the Greenway, a tree-lined route on the Park View edge of Barony Park, was constructed at the end of June 2011. There are trees along other sections of the route.

   And to avoid any misunderstanding about cyclists "riding on the footpath" a blue sign (situated just out of the main picture, above) makes it clear that the Greenway is for pedestrians and cyclists.

   I understand that this section of the park was the location of prefabs (pre-fabricated, single-storey buildings) built just after the Second World War but I am not sure whether the trees were in the gardens of the temporary homes or were planted when the prefabs were demolished. (Prefabs in Manor Road North were standing long after the Park View ones disappeared.) 

Intruding on Greenway

I HAVE seen roadways marked with white or yellow spray paint, indicating a potential trip hazard, but this is the first time I have seen a footpath marked to show the presence of weeds.

   The white circles - and the weeds -  popped up on the Beam Street, Nantwich, section of the Greenway a short time after the pedestrian and cycle way was laid.

    I am not sure whether the weeds are particularly robust and have forced their way through the Greenway, or if their seeds fell into a depression in the Tarmac and the roots found soil and water below.      

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