The existing cycle track alongside Trenchard Way is a brutal affair. Some effort should be made to soften the harsh boundary and provide local links. This is no place to linger.

 

The canal towpath starts immediately to the west of the Staplegrove Road crossing, and one is immediately travelling in a quiet corridor. There is room to gain a 2.5 or 3m wide path. This leads through to Roughmoor and the open field to Silk Mills. All the way through here the public footpath follows the line of the canal towpath which sits at a level above the floodplain. At Silk Mills the path crosses the railway access road under the Silk Mills bypass. Phase 1a would end with a short link to the south along the boundary of the main road to connect to the existing cycling track which is on the west side of the new road.