Following many years of campaigning by local councils and stakeholders, and having carried out a variety of feasibility studies into various options, Active Travel England awarded Hampshire County Council £600,000 of funding through the Active Travel Fund round 4 – ‘ATF4’ - in 2023 to upgrade the northern section of the Hayling Billy Trail (from the Havant Road car park opposite the ‘Applegreen’ garage, southwards to the North Hayling Halt car park on the shore behind the ‘Esso’ garage). This 1.2km section has now been resurfaced so that it can become a truly all-weather, all-year route to give walkers, scooters, cyclists and mobility impaired users a more attractive and safer off-road route.
Separately, covering the remainder of the Trail and the route onward to the beach, a detailed feasibility study was completed in 2025 looking at the engineering options for making the Trail a viable part of the Island’s active travel infrastructure. The Council invested £50,000 of CIL funding towards this, together with another £50,000 from the County Council. A further commission to CELT from the County Council has now been agreed to progress more detailed design on the remaining parts of the Trail, so that as and when funding opportunities arise in the future there will be ‘shovel ready’ schemes to build.
The Billy Trail on the Island is now part of the King Charles III England Coast Path.
1) The north end of the Trail covered by the ATF4 money was the best section. Why start there and not on worse sections further south?
The ATF4 funding was awarded on the basis that the project had to be designed and money committed by 31st March 2024. The northern section, being in better condition and having had work carried out in 2014, was better understood than other sections further south. There was too much risk that work on the southern sections could be designed in time to meet the government ‘s deadline – the money would then have been lost and no improvements at all made.
2) How will this help traffic on the main road (Havant Road, A3023)?
By making the Trail better for active travel (walking, wheeling and cycling), experience from elsewhere shows that people who were put off cycling by the perception of dangerous traffic will start to cycle rather than drive. This in turn reduces the volume of traffic for remaining users unable (for various reasons) to cycle, wheel or walk. It only takes a relatively small change in the percentage of people moving from car to other modes of travel, to make a real difference to congestion.
3) The Billy Trail is on the west side of the Island. What about links to it from elsewhere on Hayling?
The feasibility studies we carried out on behalf of Hampshire County Council also looked at links to the Billy Trail at various points to help people from the east of the Island access the Trail without going too far out of their way: Victoria Road (near the ‘Esso’ garage), the footpath link from West Lane bends, and at Saltmarsh Lane / Denhill Close (public footpath 521). Havant Borough Council Community Infrastructure Levy funding, along with financial contributions from Hampshire County Council and Cycle Hayling, has recently delivered an upgrade to footpath 521, with additional width, better drainage and a new all-weather surface, to provide an improved link between the northern parts of West Town and the Billy Trail. This route in particular features as part of route 262 in the Havant LCWIP which is the Hampshire County Council long-term strategy for developing cycle and walking routes in the area.
4) Won’t the Billy Trail be made busier by this work?
As a permissive bridleway the only users allowed on the Trail are walkers, cyclists (including e-bikes), scooters (although this is a matter of legal debate), users of mobility transport such as wheelchairs, and equestrians. The aim of the scheme is to provide all-year, all-weather access for all legal users to this beautiful and valued part of the coast. We hope and intend that the volume of users will increase, but the improved surface and wider path will mitigate this increase. There is plenty of experience from around the country that improvements of this sort only improve the usefulness and attractiveness of the route. Such improvements open up whole areas of the coast to those who previously were unable to use it due to physical impairment or who were put off cycling or walking on the busy main road. This all supports local trade and the tourism industry, and promotes inclusivity.
5) Isn’t this just all about allowing more development on Hayling?
Far from it. The ATF4 project was directly funded by the UK Government to support the growth of active travel where clear opportunities to do so have been identified, and Hayling, being flat and with a strong all-year tourist trade, was an ideal candidate. The funding was provided to start upgrading the route in stages, so that active travel growth (primarily walking, wheeling and cycling) can be measured against a known baseline. The idea that funding for upgrades which may come from developer contributions in some way encourages development is misleading; the Section 106 (S.106) transport contributions made by developers are independently assessed by the highway authority (Hampshire County Council) based on impact on the highway. All but the smallest or affordable developments also pay the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) to Havant Borough Council. CIL may be used as some of the funding for future phases – but as with S.106 contributions, these are used to address known or potential shortfalls in infrastructure (not just roads and paths) resulting from development.
6) Surely the money is better spent repairing worse sections of the Trail further south?
The AFT4 money awarded was capital funding which cannot be used for maintenance. It was awarded for a specific, time limited construction project on a specific part of the Trail. Maintenance of the rest of the Trail remains the responsibility of Hampshire County Council who, like all public bodies, are struggling with financial pressures including the recent cost increases in materials. As further sections of the project are hopefully awarded funding, any new construction will be to the new higher standard meaning that, once built, not only will the Trail be a more usable and inclusive place, but also the cost of maintenance will be lower.
7) What are the plans for the rest of the Trail?
On Hayling the Trail forms part of National Cycle Network route 2, which continues from Sinah Lane south along Staunton Avenue and then west to the ferry. We are now considering designs for the junctions at either end of Staunton Avenue, to see how these can be made safer and to improve the ability for pedestrians and cyclists to cross the road and continue from the south end of the Trail onwards to the beach or the ferry. Because Staunton Avenue is a public highway, any measures will need to comply with the latest design standards.
We don’t know when the rest of the Trail proper will be upgraded to the same standard as that section just completed. The ATF4 work was intended to be a proof of concept for future phases of upgrades to the Trail, not all of which may be on the same line as the Trail as it is today due to coastal erosion; but funding for this may come from a variety of sources – future government grants (other rounds of ATF perhaps), Section 106 funding levied on developers by the highway authority, and Community Infrastructure Levy are all possibilities. We are hoping that ‘success breeds success’ and that more investment will be attracted for the rest of the Trail.