Rural safety scheme appeals for advice from women

A charity is seeking the advice of women to help it improve a rural pathway.

Walk Wheel Cycle Trust is looking for women to help it improve the Sea to Sea cycle route between Stanley and Beamish in County Durham.

Network development manager Paul Adams said the 2km (1.2 mile) stretch was one of the few muddy parts of the route in the North East.

The team will start widening and resurfacing the route, alongside Durham County Council, in the winter. However, the charity said it was also looking to make sure the path was made more accessible to women, especially during darker evenings.

To do this, it is seeking up to eight women to take part in focus groups and joint walks along the route to try and figure out how the path could be made safer.

"Focus groups like this is a massive part of understanding the whole depth and breadth of the barriers that exist and making sure that women and girls inform the solutions as well," a spokesperson said.

About 61,000 trips on the route are made each year, said Adams, but he believed it could attract even more people including wheelchair uses who may currently struggle on the muddy and uneven path.

It is also hoped that by improving the route, more people will cycle and walk to Beamish Museum.

The team will not be putting major streetlights on the route due to financial and ecological constraints but is hoping to identify other ways to make the stretch feel safer for women.

This could include putting up signs that tell you how far the next exit is and embedding small lights into the path, said Adams.

Ultimately the aim is to hear what local women actually want from the path and to move forward from there, he said.

It is hoped the works on the route, including the safety improvements, will be complete by spring.

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