A new active travel route between Comrie Primary School and the U198 minor road beneath Baird’s Monument is an aspiration long-held by local communities. An off-road facility is the safest option; however, to achieve this requires landowner permissions, the assurance of future maintenance and suitable funding. 

An initial appraisal looking at route options was carried out. This assessed the accessibility, maintainability and deliverability - amongst other factors – of different route options. The old railway line between Invermilton and the junction with minor road U198, beneath Baird’s monument, is a core path and the most direct route. It is considered to be the most advantageous in terms of delivering the aims of the project, providing a traffic free, all abilities route accommodating the five core principles of design for walking and cycling - directness, comfort, safety, attractiveness and coherency.

The project has been split into five phases to make it simpler to secure funding and deliver. With a complex project such as this one, and with the distances involved, breaking the project into distinct phases is a standard approach. There are three stages of design, plus the construction, for each phase of the project.

Working closely together, PKCT and Perth and Kinross Council (PKC) have secured funding from cycling and walking charity Walk Wheel Cycle Trust (WWCT, formerly Sustrans) for the design of the various phases of this project via the National Cycle Network (NCN) fund through Transport Scotland. 

PKC successfully secured additional WWCT funding to contract PKCT and TP&E (Transport Planning and Engineering – the social enterprise part of Cycling Scotland) to deliver the design work for the Comrie to Baird’s Monument section.