When stones matter more than cycle paths

Just outside Yelverton, in Devon, National Cycle Route 27 (also part of EuroVelo 1) converges with the stones from an old horse-drawn tramway, and sadly, the cycle path loses out, while the stones are preserved.
But, as I will demonstrate in this video, this makes no sense.

[Music] hello In this video we’ll be looking at how Devon County Council deals with cycling infrastructure The route in the video is National Cycle Route 27 also known as Devon Coast to Coast and it’s part of Euro Valley 1 It’s rich with history That old stone building to the left was a tram shed for a horserawn tramway that ran from Yelbertton to Plymouth Pay attention to the left of the path You will see a faint trail at times consisting of parallel depressions And in places you will see rows of stones just peeking out from the grass Those stones we used to secure the rails up for the old tramway And of course it’s important to preserve our heritage But and you knew there was a butt coming There are miles of these stones After all the tramway ran all the way to Plymouth Now along this part of NC27 the cycle trail and the old tramway converge and soon enough they will completely overlap [Music] We’re approaching the point where they converge You can see the Tromway stones on the left At the gates the stones continue straight ahead And for a little while the cycle path runs alongside the stones The location of the stones along here is quite overgrown in places meaning they’re not always immediately visible but they are there But let’s see what happens further along [Music] Pay attention as we’re almost there Now can you see it the sealed surface of the cycle path simply stops and cyclists are expected to bump along over and between the stones After rain it can get quite muddy here too And the reason for this heritage preservation of course Apparently the old tramway stones don’t matter along many miles of open world They certainly don’t matter where they might interfere with a golf course out of sight to the left But the moment the cycle path and the stones converge the stones simply must be preserved at all costs At this point I’ll forgive you for thinking I’m being overly dramatic So let’s continue along our journey When we get to the next set of gates please pay particular attention to the course of the tramway stones As you can see they continue straight under the car gate On the other side of that gate we’re no longer on the cycle path but rather on the rural lanes where cars do get driven Look again Can you see any tramway stones now without X-ray vision you can’t as they now all underneath that tar Apparently heritage preservation goes out the window the moment cars enter the picture To be honest the tar lane doesn’t go over the old tramway stones all the time and at times you will see the stones off to the left However for significant sections the tar lane is right over the old tramway stone This stage you might quite correctly point out that there are places where there simply wasn’t any realistic alternative Space limitations forced it to happen and I’d agree However that simply isn’t true for the entire length of the lane Also back where the tramway stones and the cycle path converge there is space to tie the cycle lane right alongside But that simply didn’t happen That was a choice And even if there wasn’t enough space a compulsory purchase of a tiny piece of land just on the other side of the stone wall would have provided the space needed for the cycle path to continue uninterrupted But no Deon County Council made a decision that cyclists don’t really matter and that heritage preservation overrules the need for a decent cycle path surface They also made the decision that as soon as cars leave to space heritage preservation can go flying and they simply tred over the stones Don’t believe me keep watching and you’ll see for yourself We’re now approaching the junction where the lane will turn sharply left You will see the tramway stones continue uninterrupted directly after proving that Tar Lane was built right over the old tramway My question is simple If we absolutely had to preserve a section of the tramway stones why not here when neither the tar lane nor the cycle path needs the space why was the decision made to only preserve the tramway stones right where the cycle path and the tramway converges i would love for someone from Devon County Council to provide a simple clear answer to that [Music]