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23
Jan
£70,000 plan to encourage Ripon residents to get on their bikes
A £70,000 plan has been designed to encourage more Ripon and Catterick residents to make short journeys by bike or on foot.
The Local Cycling and Walking Accessibility Infrastructure Plan has been produced by environmental consultants WSP on behalf of North Yorkshire Council.
It will be presented for approval to Councillor Keane Duncan, the council's Conservative executive member for highways and transporation, on Friday (January 24).
The report, which you can read here, says it is the council's ambition to get more people cycling and walking.
It says many people became more active during covid, adding:
We now have an opportunity to help maintain this interest and ensure people have the choice to take short journeys on foot or by bike, rather than use their cars.
The proven way of encouraging more of us to walk and cycle is by providing routes that are coherent, direct, safe, comfortable, and attractive. North Yorkshire Council has established a cycling and walking programme to identify, develop and secure funding to deliver infrastructure improvements.
A key component of this programme is the development of Local Cycling and Walking Accessibility Infrastructure Plans, which will identify and prioritise future improvements to the cycling and walking network.
The plan encourages people to take short journeys by bike, or on foot.
The report says the plans enable a long-term, strategic approach to developing networks and routes, and help to leverage funding from national and local streams.
The Ripon plan aims to find where investment will reap the most benefit by focusing on everyday journeys to work and school and leisure routes.
Following consultation with local groups and organisations, seven priority routes have been indentified:
• Ripon City Centre to Fountains Abbey
• Ripon City Centre to West Lane Corridor
• Ripon City Centre to Newby Hall
• Clotherholme Road / Kirby Road Corridor
• Church Lane & Trinity Lane
• North Street
• River Skell Path
'No financial implications'
A report from North Yorkshire transport planning officers, which accompanies the WSP document says:
There are no financial implications arising directly from the report and approving the plans as the Local Cycling and Walking Accessibility Infrastructure Plans produce a series of concept priorities which are ready to progress but which will not progress further until funding is available.
The council will seek funding from a combination of central government funding, section 106 monies or other suitable alternative grant funding sources.
The costs of developing both Local Cycling and Walking Accessibility Infrastructure Plans (for Ripon and Catterick) amount to £69,962 and have been funded through the transport planning budget (Ripon) and section 106 funds (Catterick).
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