Carnegie`s Way Update. April 2025

It has been a while since we issued an update but the project has suffered from some unavoidable delays.  Places for Everyone (Sustrans) is going through a restructuring process that will end its involvement with active travel projects.

From the beginning of 2025, Fife Council must apply directly to Transport Scotland for active travel funding.  Places for Everyone’s involvement in our project will end once Stage 2 of their assessment process is complete. To all intents and purposes, Stage 2 (the business case and concept) is now complete.

In order to ensure that every possible avenue has been explored, Fife Council instructed their consultants to include a study of routes alongside the main road between the village and the city, a route that the had indicated might be their preference. This was done by the consultants over the Summer and their findings were included in their final report. This work contributed to the delays but was worthwhile in order to filter the options down to two viable routes out of the eleven routes or combination of routes examined.
The two routes that came out best in the report were, a cross-country route to the West Gate of Pittencrieff Park and a route that hugs the South side of the main road (A994).  Both options follow the same line between Crossford and Urquhart Farm. The former is technically the best route and best meets the criteria set down by Transport Scotland while the latter has its drawbacks but it is more intuitive. It will also cost considerably more than the cross-country route and use slightly more land but is much less intrusive to farming operations.  Crossford CC is comfortable with either of the final options.  A route alongside the North side of the A994 was found not to be practical for multiple reasons.

April 2025 - Following a meeting with the landowner and tenant farmer, Fife Council are pressing ahead with detailed designs for a route alongside the A994 between Crossford and Dunfermline. The suggested route that ran cross-country to the West gate of Pittencrieff Park has been discarded following input from the landowner. A route along the north side of the A994 will be revisited at the request of the landowner. Due to resource and financial constraints, this work could take several months.

Connectivity to the National Cycle Network routes NCN76 & NCN764: