PARISH chiefs at Mottisfont claim taxpayers' cash is being squandered on an 'unnecessary' £500,000 cycleway at nearby Timsbury when no funding is available to complete a footway in their village.

Mottisfont Parish Council says few cyclists use the existing cycleway alongside the A3057 and they are unlikely to make use of the new stretch when it is completed. Test Valley Borough Council is behind the cycleway project .

Cash to build the Timsbury to Romsey cycleway is coming from money the borough receives from land sales, said Dun Valley member Neville Whiteley, who represents Mottisfont.

Cllr Whiteley said the amount being spent on the cycleway was ridiculous considering the council was short of cash.

"The money came from capital receipts when the borough council sold off land. It's outrageous," he said.

"Alan Jones, the former chief executive, was the brains behind the cycleway. I think this is a very extravagant way to spend money when the cycleway is not going to be used very much. It may be a good idea for the future but not at this time when the council has very little money available to spend.

"I would have thought that cyclists and pedestrians could have shared the existing footpath at Timsbury. Expensive and fancy kerbing is being used unnecessarily alongside the road, too," said Mr Whiteley, who is backing Mottisfont Parish Council's 34-year campaign to build a roadside footway along the whole length of Hatt Hill.

"It's necessary. Despite the speed limit, it's still a very fast road. The footway should go the whole length of the hill. At this rate it will be 2052 before it's fully completed," added Mr Whiteley. Highway engineers are currently working on the second stage of the the Hatt Hill footway - between Dunbridge Station and a field footpath to Mottisfont Abbey. This should have been completed four years ago.

Hampshire road chiefs blamed the lengthy delay on health and safety problems involved with working near Dunbridge Station level crossing.

Parish council leader John Millns said: "For at least two years I was nave in expecting to report that this had actually been finished. Well I still can't use the word 'finished', but at least it is fairly obvious that it has been 'started', even if the work does seem to be taking a rather a long time for such a small job."

An angry Mr Millns added: "It should be noted that we first requested a footway all the way up Hatt Hill in 1972 and this is still only a very small part of it." And he echoed Cllr Whiteley's views about the cycle path.

"Furthermore, it certainly doesn't help when we see the complete waste of 'our' council tax money on projects like the 'A3057 Cycling Motorway' which far many cyclists don't even bother to use."

"It is a great pity that this wasted money could not have been put to far better use, in making the roads far safer for the most disadvantaged rural road user, the pedestrian. At least they would actually use a footway facility if it was provided."

Hampshire's deputy leader Mike Woodhall, whose Test Valley Central division covers Mottisfont, said there were a number of obstacles in the way of completing the footpath.

"Mr Millns has overlooked the fact that there are serious technical difficulties in constructing a footpath further up Hatt Hill. Without moving hedges and using land owned by the National Trust it will be impossible to take the path further up the hill."

He said he would be consulting with the National Trust over the matter.