Maidenhead & Windsor

Maidenhead Residents, ramblers and visitors alike will soon be able to step out beside the Thames in Maidenhead without leaving the scenic route along the riverbank.

After many years of working with local ramblers and other organisations and sorting out legal issues about land ownership, the Maidenhead Royal Borough has at last been able to give the go-ahead for filling in the 'missing link' – a new section of the Thames Path National Trail opposite the Thames Hotel and Bray Boats in Ray Mead Road.

Walkers currently must leave the riverbank and cross the road for 60 metres before crossing the road again to rejoin the river path further along – but they will no longer have to make the detour when the new section has been installed. Work is likely to start in about a month's time.

The £50,000 project will be funded by Section 106 contributions from developers – and by a generous £10,000 donation from the East Berkshire Ramblers' Association. The ramblers and other local groups, including Maidenhead Civic Society and the River Users' Group, have been seeking improvements to this section of the riverside path for many years.

Now, agreement for the work has been granted by the Environment Agency, who have expressed their support for the project as a significant improvement to the river environment. Approval for release of the council's £40,000 element of the funding was agreed at the cabinet prioritisation sub-committee meeting on Thursday November 9.

The new length of footpath will be built by infilling some disused landing steps opposite the Thames Hotel. Safety railings will be installed between the new footpath and the river and the unsightly crumbling landing steps will be replaced with a tarmac footpath. The work will improve access along the Thames Path National Trail, a long distance footpath that follows the Thames from its source in Gloucestershire to the Thames Barrier.

Cllr Margaret Cubley, chairman of the Maidenhead rights of way and highway licensing panel, said she was delighted that, at last, the council could give the green light for such a worthwhile footpath improvement.

Cllr Cubley said: "Legal issues over the ownership of the land have caused prolonged delays in achieving what we have all wanted for so long. However, we now have the way clear for the work to start and I am thrilled that people will soon be able to enjoy an uninterrupted walk along this very beautiful part of the Thames in Maidenhead."

Maidenhead Cllr Cubley paid tribute to the East Berkshire Ramblers and other organisations for their tireless efforts and thanked the ramblers for their generosity. She added: "The other £40,000 needed to allow this much-needed scheme to go-ahead can come from developer contributions and so at no cost to local council taxpayers."

Margaret Bowdery, president of the East Berkshire Ramblers' Association, commented: "I am delighted this riverside eyesore will be at long last transformed into an attractive public amenity. I am sure our former Borough Surveyor who planned this extension in 1950 would have been pleased that his scheme for improving the riverside promenade was eventually completed 56 years later. We are proud to claim that this is the fourth section of historic towpath we have helped re-open for public use in Maidenhead."

The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead