Richard Quigley

Isle of Wight Labour call for expert advice to be sought by council over active travel plan

The Government recently announced a fund of £250m was available to councils to boost efforts to promote healthy transport. It was

Isle of Wight Labour’s 2019 General Election candidate, Richard Quigley, said:

“We welcome the Government initiative to promote active travel to aid social distancing.

“The provision of extra funding to provide pop-up cycle lanes, widened pavements and car free areas will be vital in controlling the virus as we come out of lockdown.”

Quigley: Island could lead and Britain could follow
He went on to say,

“Our concern is that we have heard nothing in terms of a plan from Isle of Wight council. I would encourage them to liaise with local expert groups such as Cycle Wight and IWALC, to put together a plan that helps people on the Island travel to their place of work safely.

“We would strongly support plans to improve cycle lanes and develop other socially distanced active travel plans. That really would be something the Island could lead on and the rest of Britain could follow.”

Reallocating road space for cyclists
The Isle of Wight council have recently welcomed the announcement of a £2bn Government package, which includes new statutory guidance to instruct councils to reallocate road space for significantly-increased numbers of cyclists and pedestrians.

Image: © With kind permission of Allan Marsh