AMBITIOUS plans to turn Rossendale Valley into a mecca for the North West’s adrenaline junkies have received a £230,000 boost.

Proposals for a moorland route, linking mountain bike tracks at Lee Quarry and Cragg Quarry, near Bacup and Whitworth, are set to be approved by Lancashire County Council.

And the bridleway project, across Greens Moor, will also help to protect vital peat deposits, as the moor itself is currently used as an unofficial shortcut between the two biking destinations.

Earlier this year funding was found to fashion new trails around Cragg Quarry, following on from the creation of a course around Lee Quarry a couple of years ago, which attracts competitors from across Lancashire, Greater Manchester and Cheshire.

Under the new deal, a 125-year lease will be taken out for a bridleway, suitable for walkers, cyclists and horse riders, between the quarries Environment official Tony Lund said: “The construction of a bridleway across Greens Moor will form part of a family of projects which includes the popular mountain bike trail at Lee Quarry in Rossendale.

“It will form a key link between Lee Quarry and Cragg Quarry, enabling users of these facilities access across the moor.

“The provision of a high-quality multi-user route across the moor will preserve the moor from erosion with people making their own way across the moor.”

The moor is common land so people are entitled to walk, or ride, across it, but it is felt that a formal pathway will safeguard peat.

Another side project by the county council is already seeing the moorland ‘rewetted’. The peat deposits capture carbon from the atmosphere.

Work will also take place to reinvigorate surrounding countryside under the guidance of the county’s ecology specialists.

So far the budget for the pathway initative has been supported by £149,000 from Natural England’s Aggregate Levy Fund, £25,000 courtesy of Lancashire County Developments Limited, and £15,500 from the county’s local transport plan fund.

Further bids of £20,000 have been lodged with Rossendale Borough Council’s performance reward grant scheme, £10,000 from Lancashire Environment Fund, and the same amount from Peel Energy’s habitat improvement fund.