Hayling Billy Trail: the £500k southern makeover

The Hayling Billy Trail has long been one of the easiest walks to sell to anyone living near Portsmouth. It follows the route of the old Puffing Billy line, the railway that once linked Havant with the southern end of Hayling Island and ran for more than a century before the trackbed was turned into a trail in the 1980s. Today it is a permissive bridleway, open to pedestrians, cyclists, e-bikes, skaters, mobility-impaired users and horse riders, and it doubles as a section of National Cycle Network Route 2, the Shipwrights Way and the King Charles III England Coast Path. The whole stretch between the Northern Car Park and Sinah Lane runs to 2.8 miles, or about 4.5 kilometres, and it is currently being upgraded in stages.

The first phase is already in. In 2025, the northern section, roughly 1.2 to 1.3 kilometres from the Havant Road car park to North Hayling Halt, was resurfaced as an all-weather route for pedestrians, skaters, cyclists and mobility-impaired users, paid for by a £600,000 grant from Active Travel England. The surface is designed to look natural while staying firm, with asphalt underneath and stone chippings embedded in resin, and a slight camber to wash away mud and leaves.

That leaves the southern section, which is the focus of the next £500,000. Hampshire County Council is considering approval for the work from the Station Theatre northwards, about 1,100 metres, funded by a grant from Active Travel England via the Walk Wheel Cycle Trust. The plan is an all-weather surface up to three metres wide for pedestrians and cyclists, with a soft verge kept for horse riders. The proposal was presented at the council's Decision Day on 7 September, so if it goes ahead, tenders will be issued after that, with most of the work aimed for completion before Christmas and the final surfacing in spring 2027.

The wider ambition is to widen and improve the entire 4.5-kilometre route from the Northern Car Park to Sinah Lane, with a separate scheme for the crossing at Staunton Avenue and Sinah Lane. A feasibility study for the rest of the trail was finished in 2025, and preliminary designs for the remaining sections came together in 2026, with future funding potentially coming from further government grants, Section 106 contributions from developers and the Community Infrastructure Levy.

It sits in good company on the island, too. The section of the King Charles III England Coast Path between Portsmouth and Hayling Island opened in November 2025, running 22 miles with 19 Bird Aware Solent interpretation panels along the way. Nearby at Southmoor Nature Reserve, Natural England has funded a 400-metre boardwalk, with the final 100 metres due to be installed over winter. Between the two, the island is becoming a genuinely easy place to spend a day on foot, and the Hayling Billy is the most obvious place to start.