Celebrations for Hereford's Connect 2 scheme winning a share of £50million in Big Lottery funding may have died down but work is now starting in earnest to get the walking and cycling route up and running.
The path which will link the city centre with Rotherwas and beyond will receive £350,000 from Sustrans who successfully bid for the Big Lottery fund for this and 78 other similar schemes around the country. Herefordshire Council has agreed to match fund this sum through its capital spending budget.
Students from Herefordshire College of Technology's Holme Lacy campus, which is based at the far end of the planned route, are starting to help clear the ground for the new path following the disused railway line .
Julie Balsam, outdoor adventure teacher at the college, said their part of the Connect2 route running through the college's grounds at Holme Lacy has been very overgrown for many years.
As part of their impact and sustainability project, students have decided to clear the area and the work has already revealed the remains of the old railway platform and station buildings.
Julie said: "The students need to complete a sustainable project as part of their coursework and this is the perfect option because they don't need to travel to complete it and they have also been using traditional hand tools such as spades, scythes and shears which means this is a carbon neutral scheme in itself."
Experts from the Forestry Commission have offered students advice on tree clearance and Herefordshire Council is to be contacted over the best way to preserve the revealed remains.
Julie said: "We have students at the college studying land management, forestry, horticulture and gardening and their expertise in all of these subjects can help to improve this area as well as giving the students a better understanding of the practical importance of what they are studying."
Councillor Brian Wilcox, Herefordshire Council's cabinet member for highways and transportation, said: "I am pleased to see the students helping prepare the ground for this much-needed route which will offer a traffic-free crossing over the river to the Rotherwas industrial estate and beyond to Holme Lacy.
"The students are to be congratulated for all the hard work they have been carrying out and hopefully many of them will be able to use the completed route as a safe and easy way to travel into the centre of Hereford or to the college's campus at Folly Lane," he added.
Hereford's Connect2 project is one of 79 community-based schemes aiming to make journeys easier, safer and more enjoyable. Sustrans, the UK's leading sustainable transport charity, is overseeing all of the schemes.
A steering group has now been set up with terms of reference to work on the five-year plan which will bring the route to fruition.
The steering group includes representatives from Hereford Ramblers, Hereford and District Wheelers, St James and Bartonsham Community Association, Cycle Hereford, Taylor Lane, Herefordshire College of Technology, Shipley Gardens, Primary Care Trust, Hereford Pedicab and Pedicargo, Herefordshire and Worcestershire Chamber of Commerce and Herefordshire Council.