A MONTH on from it being featured in the Free Press a petition calling for a cycle path to be built from Chepstow to Tintern still needs signatures to reach its target.

It was started by Jennifer and Nik Peregrine from the Transition Chepstow group, who set it up after they discovered that children who were part of the Pembroke Primary School Bike Club in Bulwark were unable to cycle in a safe environment.

The group’s petition had pulled in support from 2,068 people in three months. The group aims to give Chepstow a cycling infrastructure on par with other places nearby after the couple were disappointed after progress on building a path in the area stalled.

And Mrs Peregrine said they had attended several Monmouthshire council groups to stop climate change but that the county’s cycling policy “was lagging behind in the 19th century”.

For the past seven years, they created a map illustrating traffic free paths in Chepstow, and waited for confirmation of the planning application for the Wye Valley shared use path to open up between Chepstow and Monmouth. Lottery funding was available – but nothing has come of it.

She said ultimately the group has bigger ambitions than just the path being built: “We want to make it link right through from Caldicot to Chepstow and on to the Severn Bridge.”

The town lies close to the so-called cycling capital of the UK, Bristol. A shared path also recently opened through Bath and there are others on the Gwent Levels, near Newport and the South Wales Valleys.

The Bristol Cyclists Touring Club, the Community Fund for Wales and Transition Chepstow have already backed the shared path idea.

The petition will run until it has enough signatures to persuade the Welsh Assembly and Monmouthshire council that the path is overdue, Mrs Peregrine has said, with an original target of 3,000 people signed up.

A new Wye Cycle portal was launched at the end of June in anticipation of the National Road Race Championships passing through Chepstow and is a resource that will be used to support transport projects in the area.

For more information on cycling in the area and to sign the petition visit wyecycle.co.uk.