Residents and visitors are being urged to have their say and help shape new plans to improve the quality of walking and cycling infrastructure in the Brading, Bembridge and St Helens area.
Brading Town Council, Bembridge Parish Council and St Helens Parish Council have come together to commission an area-wide Local Walking and Cycling Infrastructure Plan, or LCWIP for short.
Identifying key routes and zones
LCWIPs are strategic plans that identify key routes and zones where changes to the infrastructure or the implementation of more walking and cycling friendly policies can provide higher quality, safer environments for people to get around on foot, wheelchair, mobility scooter and bike.
A particular focus is on routes to important local destinations like schools, shops, places of work and medical centres.
Ainsley: “Local people are the experts on their area”
The project is being facilitated by Cowes-based sustainable travel consultancy People Powered CIC, who have already undertaken an LCWIP for the Cowes area. Central to the development of the plan is community input, as Will Ainslie, director at People Powered explains:
“Local people are the experts on their area; what’s good, what’s bad, what are the issues that prevent them from walking and cycling around the area more and how they’d like to see things made better.
“Be it wider pavements, dedicated cycle tracks, improved crossings on certain junctions, slower traffic speeds…this is a great opportunity for people to contribute their views and we want as many people as possible to get involved.”
See the interactive map
People Powered have set up an interactive map of the Brading / Bembridge / St Helens area to make it easy for people to indicate what improvements they’d like to see and where.
The map is available on the Website until Sunday 26th June 2022.
Three public open evenings
In addition to the Web-based map, open evenings have been planned for locations in all three parishes. They are:
- Mon 6th June, 6pm-8pm, St Helens Community Centre
- Sat 11th June, 11am-1pm, St Mary’s Church Hall, Brading
- Sat 11th June, 3pm-5pm, Bembridge Village Hall
Comments can also be sent in by email to: [email protected] or by post to any of the parish council offices.
Collection of travel data
As well as gathering the views of the community, People Powered will be collecting travel data from key trip generators and existing travel patterns in the area, before combining all the information to put forward proposals for a network of routes and area wide improvements.
Prioritised for funding
Completion of the LCWIP is scheduled for autumn 2022.
Communities that have developed an LCWIP will be prioritised by the Department for Transport when it comes to seeking investment funding to help realise the plans.
Find out more
For more information on LCWIPs and latest national street design guidance, visit the Website.
For further information about the project, contact Will Ainslie on 01983 898055 or email: [email protected]
News shared by Will on behalf of People Powered Community Interest Company. Ed
Image: youcef chenzer under CC BY 2.0
