PRESS RELEASE

The Crab and Winkle Trust announces Canterbury City Council funding to work on the Crab and Winkle Way in Whitstable.

Following a decision by its Regeneration and Property Committee, Canterbury City Council has allocated £150,140 of Section 106 money to start work on the extension of the Crab and Winkle Way in Whitstable. The money will be spent on environmental surveys and care of all wildlife identified on sections of the historic Canterbury-to-Whitstable railway in Whitstable.  Design work will now be completed and it is hoped that construction can start later in 2017 to extend the current Crab and Winkle Way (which now stops towards the top of All Saints’ Close) to Old Bridge Road and Whitstable railway station.

The land is owned partly by Kent County Council and partly by the local charity, the Crab and Winkle Line Trust, set up in 1997 to promote the history of the line and to bring it back into public use. The Trust has planning approval to extend the current cyclepath and footpath towards the Harbour and intends to build bridges over Old Bridge Road and Teynham Road in Whitstable and extending the path.

The section 106 money, obtained from the developers of the Huyck residential development on the Old Thanet Way, will be spent by the Council to make sure that building a low-impact footpath would not adversely risk Whitstable’s flora or fauna.

Marcial Boo, chair of the Trust, said: “This £150,000 is good news for residents who will enjoy improved traffic-free access to local shops, industry and schools. And it’s great that the Council is working in partnership with local charities to improve Whitstable for its residents and visitors. But there is still over £2 million that the Trust needs to raise if we want to extend the current path over the railway line and Teynham Road. Our work to raise this money will carry on.”

Details about the Trust and its work are at: www.crabandwinkle.org.