MALVERN Town Council says an agreement should be signed with Worcestershire officers to allow them to build a cycleway over Duke's Meadow, off Pickersleigh Road, without the authority losing the land to them.

Worcestershire County Council has been proposing the provision of a cycleway across the field for some time and the project was brought to the attention of town councillors in March, 2004.

The town council was asked to agree to a deed of dedication, which would allow the county council to construct the cycleway - being funded by the latter and Malvern Science Park - on the land.

Town councillors discussed the issue at a recent meeting and the authority's clerk, Richard Chapman, reported that they were now waiting for a response from the county council over correspondence they had had with them concerning the plan.

The town council was concerned that in giving Worcestershire County Council permission to build on the land they would lose ownership of it while, at the same time, remaining liable for claims of compensation in the event of an accident happening there.

Mr Chapman added: "While we support the cycleway, we don't want to give it away to the county council, although I believe there's an agreement that can be made whereby we can give them a licence so that they can go ahead and build it without this happening."

If the town council did agree to the deed of dedication, the clerk has asked that there be additional clauses to exempt the authority from all claims and also to require the county council to accept responsibility for maintaining and repairing both the footpath and the cycleway.