Hayling Billy restoration

The Hayling Billy trail is the only traffic-free cycle route off the island. It was the old Puffing Billy railway for over 100 years, then transformed in the 1980’s, following a campaign by a group of local cyclists inspired by Sustrans. But 40 years later, the surface has deteriorated badly, and sections of the trail have collapsed into the sea, which are very difficult to repair with such strong nature protections. Part of the northern section got a red self-binding gravel surface a few years back, which was better, but not perfect.

Cycle Hayling has been campaigning for a smooth, all-weather surface since we started in 2010, and the northern section from the bridge to the Esso garage car park will be finished in January 2025!. Active Travel England awarded Hampshire County Council a £600,000 grant, ring-fenced for active travel, so it was never available for potholes or sea defences.

And Hampshire and Havant Councils have jointly invested another £100,000 in a Feasibility Design for the rest of the Billy Trail, including looking at links towards the centre of the island. And where the current billy trail is at risk of being washed away by the sea, alternative inland routes will be investigated along with measures to protect it from future erosion without impacting nature.

Cycle Hayling says this is wonderful news, not just for cyclists (75% of users), but for walkers (21%), horse-riders (4%), the disabled, and nature lovers. And for motorists, by getting cyclists off our narrow, overloaded main road.

Here’s what we know so far:
  • It will try to cater for everyone – cyclists, walkers, parents with child buggies, wheelchairs for the disabled, nature lovers and horse riders. Where there’s room, it will have an adjacent ‘country path’, for walkers and horses.
  • It’s PLANNED to have a natural-looking, all-weather surface, like the Langstone end of the Billy Trail. That’s asphalt underneath, topped with stone chips embedded in resin to make it less road like and more natural, and less vulnerable in wet and icy weather to skidding, spray and muck, with a slight camber to help rain wash off mud and leaves.
  • BUT, Hampshire is considering whether to leave it as black tarmac and use the cost saving to patch up some of the worst other sections.
  • It will use recycled materials in the base layer, saved from past road repairs.
  • Future maintenance is unclear. First reports suggested it would be by Hampshire Highways, which we supported because Hampshire Countryside Services don’t have the money or the expertise. In the past, Hampshire Highways would only take on cycle path if paid in advance for the next 30 or 40 years maintenance, which is exactly the opposite of how we fund everything else.
  • Victoria Rd West will also be improved, next to the Esso garage, which has caused quite a few cycling accidents over recent years. This is the only safe cycle route out of the North Hayling estate.

Hampshire County Council is the transport authority, and own most of the Billy Trail, but they’ve delegated more than ever before to Havant Council. That’s great for Hayling, because Havant have much better local knowledge, great cycle path expertise, and better communications.

A key issue will be gaining support from all users of the Billy Trail, not just cyclists. Many people are concerned that e-bikes and e-scooters will go too fast and cause accidents, or that it will become too much like a road, or even that motor vehicles will be allowed (they won’t). But legal e-bikes cut the power at 15mph, which is about normal cycling speed. That’s why we’re suggesting a 15mph speed limit.

So it’s really important for all cyclists to demonstrate that we can share paths respectfully with walkers. I know cyclists in a hurry hate slowing down, but walkers loathe bikes whooshing past without warning too – so use your bell! And e-bikes are much easier to get back up to speed, so they mind slowing down less.

Ideally we’d have separate paths for cycling and walking all the way along, but some of the edges are protected by law for nature – which we all support – and making it wider would make it look too much like a road. But traffic volumes are low, so we think 3 metres is wide enough, especially where’s there’s room for the ‘country path’ alongside.

Many of the new cyclists we hope it will attract will be lone commuters, riding in single file, so they won’t need as much space as a leisure group who spread across the path. We’d like some sort of gentle segregation by signs or surface markings to ’nudge’ walkers and cyclists to their own side. We’d suggest walkers on the sea side, cyclists on the inland side.

And it’s over double it’s old railway width of 4 foot 8 and a half inches! It’s always been a transport link – it’s first century as The Puffing Billy railway line, from 1867 until the Beeching cuts in 1963. It then languished for 20 years, almost unusable, until 1984, when a group of Havant cyclists persuaded John Grimshaw (later to found Sustrans) to come up with a design to transform it, which they used to lobby Havant and Hampshire Councils. And it later became a core part of the Sustrans National Cycle Network as NCN2.

But it’s gone mostly downhill since then, with very little maintenance, rough surfaces, mud, floods and persistent erosion from the sea.

We tried to shortern the northern end dogleg by the railway signal – cyclists don’t like detours, and that always seems a psychological ‘backward step’. So we were hoping we could go straight across inside the lagoon, but apparently there are too many natural protections.

Many people have asked why are we tarting up the bit that’s already pretty good – why aren’t we starting with the WORST bits? Blame the lovely Tory government of the time – the project had to complete in 12 months, or they’d take back all the money. And the only section that could be finished by then is the northern section – just in time for the May elections. I think that’s cynical electioneering, and not the right thing for residents of Hayling.

WORSE …… the last Tory government then slashed future Active Travel funding by two-thirds. The £600,000 came from Active Travel England’s round 4 Active Travel Funding, and only covers the first 1.2 kms – we’ll need much more.

Please write to Alan Mak today, asking him to reverse the Active Travel cuts and get us the funding to protect the Billy Trail for the next 30 or 40 years.

If you want to support our efforts, please register your support; registration is free and we will keep you up-to-date with progress.

Latest posts

What sort of Hayling Billy Trail do we want?

Posted on: January 26, 2025 by: Wilf Forrow

Cycle Hayling asked Cycle Hayling supporters and general Facebook users what sort of Hayling Billy Trail they wanted, particularly the surface. You can see the results below.

But first, here’s why we’ve always pushed for a natural skid-proof stone chip surface like the Langstone section, because in wet or icy weather smooth tarmac becomes an ice rink, whereas stone chips reduce skid risk, spray and muck.

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Funding cuts

Posted on: June 11, 2023 by: Andy Henderson

At last, we have a £700,000 plan to restore the Billy Trail to it’s full destiny, but that’s only the first stretch. We will need much more to finish the job.

But this disastrous government has suddenly slashed active travel funding by two-thirds with no warning, against all their strategies for active travel and health. How can councils plan like that?

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The Billy Trail £700,000 Miracle!

Posted on: May 19, 2023 by: Andy Henderson

Do you believe in miracles? Well you should now – the Hayling Billy Trail is finally going to get the smooth, all-weather surface that Cycle Hayling has been campaigning for since we started, over a decade ago!

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Hayling Herald article for February 2023

Posted on: January 31, 2023 by: Andy Henderson

Hayling Billy Sea Defence erosionOur Cycle Hayling column for the February Hayling Herald

…. with added pictures and web links that work …

This month

  • Billy Trail on trial?
  • Raw Hides and Sore Heads review
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Hayling Island Coastal Management Strategy

Posted on: January 31, 2023 by: Andy Henderson

HICMS flood mapWill Hayling sink or swim with climate change and rising sea levels? Our local Councils completed the draft Hayling Island Coastal Management Strategy in 2022, which you can see here.

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Saltmarsh Lane cycle path update

Posted on: June 7, 2019 by: Andy Henderson

The Saltmarsh Lane cycle path will link the West Lane and Saltmarsh Lane to the Billy Trail, by converting the existing footpath.

It’s the west-most leg of Havant Borough Council’s proposed East-West Cycle Route, as first published in 2017 in their Cycling Improvements Feasibility Report, and supported by Cycle Hayling. But the developer contributions from the Halyards (Goldring Close) estate were not enough to fund it.

So Cycle Hayling bid for a CIL grant to cover the council’s estimate of £16,000 for the council to complete it. And we won it!

But we had to overcome some early problems, which have taken us the last year:

  1. The council wasn’t able to take it on, as the price had only been a ballpark estimate, and turned out to be much too low.
    So we decided Cycle Hayling would hire contractors and manage it instead.
  2. We got estimates for different Hampshire County Council approved surfaces, but realised none of them would provide the smooth surfaces we need.
  3. With help from our County Councillor, and a great deal of flexibility from Hampshire Countryside Services, we’ve now found a way forward, using the same surface used on the Langstone section of the Billy Trail, known as Tar and Chip.

This will be the first Tar and Chip cycle path on Hayling, so people can see how it looks, and decide whether they want it on other cycle paths, such as the beach, the old cinder track, and perhaps even one day, a part-width of the Billy Trail itself.

But it’s not just for cyclists. It’s for pushchairs, buggies, wheelchairs, and anyone who’s not steady on their feet.

Unfortunately, the rest of the East-West cycle path will still be the old-style gravel that doesn’t please cyclists or parents or the disabled. For the moment!

We just have two more problems to overcome before we can start:

  1. Legal right of way for cycling. The existing right of way is a footpath only, and requires a legal agreement to upgrade it for cycling. Although the main landowner has always been happy to sign, we have to track down some other landholders, get them to sign legal agreements too. That will take some time.
  2. Money! The extra costs for legal fees and the improved surface mean we need more money, probably another £6,000 to £8,000. Our County Councillor has once again stepped up, and found us another £1,700, and we’re asking others to help, including Southern Water, who use part for a pumping station, and the Hayling Ride. If you have any more ideas, please shout!

We can then go back to our contractors for re-quotes, based on our upgraded specification. But anyway, we can’t do anything during the bird-nesting season, which extends to July/August.

 

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Hayling Islander column February 2019

Posted on: January 23, 2019 by: Andy Henderson

This is our Hayling Islander column for February (excluding any editing by the Islander, images may differ). 

Cycle Hayling launches our new website and ‘Smooth the Path’ campaign.

Smooth the Path

Does Hayling deserve smooth, all-weather paths that can be used safely by everyone? Not just by cyclists, but by parents walking with buggies, kids with scooters and balance bikes, wheelchairs, disabled buggies, and even people who struggle with balance? Like the ones on the mainland in Havant?

Because Hampshire County Council says we don’t.

And that’s why Cycle Hayling is launching our new 2019 website with our ‘Smooth the Path’ campaign.

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Havant’s new Cycling and Walking Plan!

Posted on: January 23, 2019 by: Andy Henderson

Havant Borough Council has announced that it will be starting work on a formal Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plan shortly.

[UPDATE JUNE 2021: We’re still waiting!!!]

This is REALLY important because :

  • A formal plan unlocks much more future government funding
  • Implementing it becomes a formal policy of the whole council, not just the cycling team
  • It forces developers to show how their housing plans fit into OUR bigger plan
  • It forces all of us to plan for the best long term solution, rather than just for quick wins
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Repairs on the Billy Trail

Posted on: October 19, 2015 by: Andy Henderson

We understand that work on repairing the section of the trail that eroded away last year is due to start in early November.

This will seek to restore the trail to the state it was in before the storms. It’s not a permanent fix, however. We can expect erosion to continue until a longer-term solution can be implemented.

The work will involve some lorries on the trail and, therefore, some closures. We’ll let you know if we hear more.

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Another Billy Trail closure – more improvement

Posted on: June 20, 2014 by: Andy Henderson

See below for an update from the Havant Transport and Implementation Team. We don’t yet have dates for the closure but will post them here when we do.

It’s good to see more improvement. It’s early days, but the new section seems much better than the southern section, so we’re hoping it will set the standard for future improvements.

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Billy Trail re-opens following upgrade

Posted on: June 10, 2014 by: Andy Henderson

The section at the north of the island is now open again, although all users are being asked to treat the new surface with respect while it is bedding in.

There’s also some more work to do that will not require the path to be closed, so please watch out for people working.

Peter Drury’s blog has some photos of the new section and some taken while it was under construction.

We are all hoping that this will prove to be an excellent development that will show the way for future Billy Trail improvements. We’ll be keeping an eye on it as time goes on.

Thanks – once again – are due to Peter Drury who has done so much to bring this about through his Hayling Billy 50 work. I’m sure he’d be the first to point out that it’s been a team effort involving Havant, Hampshire, National Lottery and a bunch of others.

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Closure heralds a Billy Trail upgrade

Posted on: May 9, 2014 by: Andy Henderson

Havant Borough Council – acting as agent for Hampshire County Council – is closing the top end of the Billy Trail for three weeks starting on 19th May. That’s so they can lay a new surface over a 250 metre section.

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Work about to start at the North end of the Hayling Billy Trail?

Posted on: April 25, 2014 by: Andy Henderson

The latest progress report on the bridge works (Works Progress 7: 16th April 2014 on this page) says…

We’ll then move off the road and work on the ‘Hayling Billly 50’ Trail rebuilding, completing everything by mid June.

That’s a reference to Lottery-funded project initiated by Peter Drury as part of the Hayling Billy 50 years commemoration.

It looks like something is definitely going to happen. We understand that the project will:

  • Use the same surface as recently laid at the south end of the Billy Trail
  • Resurface a limited section of the trail (and not, as hoped, as far as the Esso Garage)

We are concerned over the quality of recent cycle path development by both Havant and Hampshire so – at Peter’s request – I have documented our concerns with an offer to help. Peter has passed them to the project board.

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Update from Cycle Hayling

Posted on: March 23, 2014 by: Andy Henderson

In this update…

  • Footpath 88 extension project cancelled
  • Billy Trail Phase 4 development
  • Billy Trail south end development
  • Issues with new cycle paths
  • Bike security session
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Improvement to the south end of the Billy Trail

Posted on: February 8, 2014 by: Andy Henderson

Havant Borough Council has had a second go at improving the south end of the Billy Trail next to HIADS. This after the first attempt caused safety concerns and had to be reversed.

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Hayling Billy Trail Lottery Cash Award

Posted on: December 20, 2013 by: Andy Henderson

As reported in today’s Portsmouth News (see http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/news/cash-grant-set-to-give-hayling-billy-a-new-lease-of-life-1-5763502) the Peter Drury HB50 project to mark the 50 years since the last Hayling Billy steam train, has now been successful in gaining Lottery funds of nearly £90k. Well Done Peter and we look forward to seeing the improvements on the island part of the Billy Trail.

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More cycle path improvements coming soon

Posted on: September 19, 2013 by: Andy Henderson

The updated Hayling Cycle map published by Havant at http://www.havant.gov.uk/sites/default/files/documents/Back_FINAL.pdf reveals a number of developments planned to complete by Spring 2014:

  • Completion of the links between the Langstone section of the Billy Trail and the Hayling section making it possible to use off-road cycle paths to travel between West Town and Havant – with just a few road crossings.
  • Signposting of a cycle route to the west of Beachlands taking people onto Ferry Road to the East of the Golf Club.

We understand that there might be other developments taking place at the same time and that some work could be completed well before next Spring.

You can find the full list of Havant’s published cycle maps here.

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New money for Hayling’s leisure trails

Posted on: July 18, 2013 by: Andy Henderson

We initially heard from Andy Leneghan that the Partnership for Urban South Hampshire (PUSH) had allocated £60K to improve access to leisure trails.

We’ve done some digging and Havant has confirmed that:

“£60,000 capital funding has been allocated to Havant Borough Council (HBC) by PUSH to improve access and connectivity to green infrastructure on Hayling Island through enhancements to the Billy Trail and the Seafront footpath/cycleway. HBC and Hampshire County Council will contribute S106 funding to match the PUSH grant which is to be spent on resurfacing work and provision of signage for both trails, including restoration of the old Billy Line signal arm. The work will be carried out during autumn/winter 2013/14 so it will be completed for Spring 2014.”

We’ll publish more details as we learn them.

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All clear (mostly) on the Billy Trail

Posted on: May 5, 2013 by: Andy Henderson

The stones that made the South end of the Billy Trail difficult and potentially dangerous have been removed.

Cycle Hayling and several users of the Billy Trail raised concerns through a number of contacts, and they have been heard. There is a large pile of the stones in the car park next to HIADS. Hopefully they’ll be removed and not redeployed on the trail.

You should be aware, however, there are still some stones left on the trail. Some care is needed to avoid them.

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Caution: Billy Trail resurfacing

Posted on: April 29, 2013 by: Andy Henderson

Some of the dips at the south end of the trail that turn into large puddles after heavy rain have been filled in with some kind of aggregate.

Resurfacing at the South end of the Billy Trail

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Hayling Billy trail usability

Posted on: January 14, 2013 by: Andy Henderson

The Hayling Billy trail is a great facility shared by walkers, cyclists and horse riders. At various times of the year it supports many kinds of cycling, and many kinds of cyclist. There is a regular band of commuters using the trail as a pleasant traffic-free start and end to their day; and some off-island commuters use the trail as an alternative way to Portsmouth (via the ferry) rather than ride around the mainland and down Portsea Island. The trail is popular with weekend leisure cyclists. Young children learn to ride their bikes along the trail. It’s a nice route if you go shopping in Havant by bike. Cyclists ride the trail on mountain bikes, hybrid bikes, touring bikes or their shopping bikes; out and out racing bikes can be difficult because they work best on smoother surfaces, but ridden slowly and carefully a racing bike can use the trail … most of the time. But some of the time the trail is difficult for all bikes.

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