RESIDENTS are being urged to help find a way to better connect two settlements.

In 2014, talks began to link Smannell village and Augusta Park with an informal pathway, but discussions ground to a halt with Hampshire County Council (HCC) due to the cost of providing a solution.

However, a resident-backed petition launched by Test Valley Borough Council (TVBC) leader Councillor Phil North and county councillor Kirsty North discussed a footpath to run the length of Smannell Road.

In a blog post, Cllr Phil North said: “This wasn’t universally accepted in Smannell who raised understandable objections about the urbanisation of their village and that the pathway would no longer be gravel.

“We then undertook a formal public consultation last summer to gauge the views of Augusta Park residents and understand the true feelings of the residents of Smannell.”

An arboricultural assessment was carried out by HCC and it was deemed that this path would not be possible, and since then a number of schemes have been put to the authority, but with no avail.

Now, instead, a number of traffic measures have been put forward as an idea.

These include to provide a village gateway feature to slow traffic speeds, improve signage to a right of way, investigate opportunities for additional rights of way, and construct a short section of footway from Smannell House to connect to the existing right of way in the village.

But Cllr North added: “It is my view that although helpful, these alternative measures do not compare with the advantages of having a pathway adjacent to the road.

“However, it may now be possible that we can link both communities by a series of more formalised footpaths away from the road. We need to do this whilst doing what we can to reduce traffic speeds on the Smannell Road.”

He is now asking a group of Augusta Park residents to meet with the parish council and the council’s highways department to discuss a way forward in the “frustrating saga”.