Islanders are being urged to have their say to help shape new plans to improve the quality of walking and cycling street design in the Cowes, Northwood and Gurnard area.
Cowes Town Council, Northwood Parish Council and Gurnard Parish Council have come together to commission an area-wide Local Walking and Cycling Infrastructure Plan, or LCWIP for short.
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. This helps to create a healthier environment and a more inclusive community. A particular focus is on routes to important local destinations like schools, shops, places of work and medical centres.
The project is being facilitated by Cowes-based sustainable travel consultancy People Powered CIC and central to the development of the plan is community input.
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.”
People Powered have set up an interactive map of the Cowes/Northwood/Gurnard area to make it easy for people to indicate what improvements they’d like to see and where. The map is available at www.yourviews.org.uk until 31st January 2022.
In addition to the web-based map, open evenings are being planned for locations in all three parishes. Dates, times and venues for the drop-in events will be published at www.people-powered.uk/LCWIP as soon as they are finalised. Comments can also be sent in by email to [email protected].
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 Cowes area, before combining all the information to put forward proposals for a network of routes and area wide improvements.
Completion of the LCWIP is scheduled for early April 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.
Very odd that all the money is being chucked at Cowes.
Odd that the leader of the council represents Cowes as well!!
This helps to create a healthier environment and a more inclusive community.
pah…nothing more than buzz words and a sales pitch.
We are not a “community” …we are a collection of people who happen to live in the same geographical area, who tolerate each other and did not choose those who live close by. Most of us don’t like or even talk to those that live in the closest building or flat next to each of us. So stop making us out to all be living in some tree hugging, hippie commune.
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The real issue is…how much of the council taxpayers money is being wasted on this dross and who is financially benefiting.
How about some signs up informing cyclists that the rules of the road apply to them as well, especially at traffic lights; and that common sense is needed, like when they pass a place to pull in where they could let the queue of vehicles behind go by. I do it when I’m out cycling. Only takes a moment and I’m back cycling an empty road again. As to walkers, stop gawping at your phone!
It sounds as if you are someone who rides a bicycle, not a cyclist.
I am a cyclist, a very keen cyclist who cycles thousands of miles a year, but I am also a motorist. Even as a very keen cyclist, the attitude of some other cyclists on the road does annoy me. There is no reason why a cyclist shouldn’t pull over from time to time to let a long line of traffic pass. It’s just about having a bit of consideration!
But, really, what’s the point? The Council will do what they want anyway regardless of what residents say.
It happens time and time again. The Council just go through the motions of asking for resident’s feedback and comments and then completely ignore them. It does make you feel apathetic towards the whole process.
1’st thing to do for the whole Island is get rid of beryl scooters, sieze all illegal scooters, inform all cycle clubs that single file riding is the law(not riding in peloton groups) there are other road users and if they respect them then they will also be respected. cycle tracks dont work as many cycle down the footpath when a cycle track exists a few hundred yards away.
The cheapest and easiest way would be more double yellow lines and to STOP letting people park on pavements. It is NOT peo9ples right to own a car, neither is not anyone’s right to be able to park in front of their property. Also get people to park in their driveways, for those that have them. Then build a multi story car park or two…NOT too far away.
Then pass some law to new house builders that they have to provide off road parking. two at least per property, or more. because four bed ( or more) homes will have more than two cars.. simples.
The Council are useless
They let persons Park on pavements and double yellow lines down many Roads.
The Island is the most UNSAFE place I have seen.
The Council should employ Tow Companies to Tow Vehicles away
If someone gets killed due to IW Councils incompetence to make the
Island Roads and Pavements Safe, my guess is the Council will be liable.
THEY ARE NOT DOING THE JOB THEY ARE EMPLOYED TO DO!
They should Patrol Island Roads and Streets 24/7 7 days a week
It will also create more work for people
It is a person’s right to own a car just as it is to own a house how ignorant and faciest
Another ‘let’s invent a problem then spend a fortune solving it to the detriment of all normal people’ project from the busybodies and bureaucrats – how about spending the money on better public refuse collection, street cleaning and tidying up verges/garden areas and public spaces to make the place more attractive to visitors who, like it or not, are the lifeblood of the island (unlike public sector pen-pushers and councillors)
Build wider roads maybe?
NO drive smaller cars
I cycle alone all year round and my main issue is the crap which builds up kerbside. i don’t know how much sweeping this council do (compared to others) but it isn’t enough, certainly on main roads. and it just pushes cyclists further away from the road edges to avoid debris.
Like other posters say can’t improve safety if you let cars park where they want and do nothing about parking infringements. widening a pavement will just encourage cars to park on it. too many people who just take the pish.
If you don’t like the roads we car drivers have to pay extortion to use and are required by law to have insurance registration road tax which is a joke in itself when we pay tax on that tax and have a licence you cyclists get to use the roads for free and your just a hazard and hold up traffic then use the cycle track that’s just for you or maybe we should start driving our cars down your cycle track then you’d complaine about that as well you can’t have your cake and eat it
What a pile of utter garbage, once again the motorist is the target yet these clowns ignore the fact that huge areas of the Island have no public transport, how exactly is a cycle path going to make a community “inclusive”, how about teaching cyclist that they are breaking the law riding on pavements and that one way restrictions apply to them as well as motorists, that traffic lights are not pretty coloured road decorations.
The island has a very large cycling & walking community & improving cycling / walking paths would be welcomeed along with more paths added island wide, like the old railway line paths, it would encourage more people to leave cars at home, also a huge amount of the island’s tourists are cyclist’s & walkers,
Cyclists should be banned from the roads as they don’t have to have a licence or registration and more importantly insurance but they can still damage people’s cars injure pedestrians and you have no way of claiming for the damages/injuries and with no registration no way of tracking them down and identifying them to take them to court and there is a cycle track on the island that a cyclist can get from anywhere on the island to anywhere on the island so why are they permitted on our roads when they have their very own exclusive road they also hold up motor vehicles compounding pollution.
Picture actually shows a traffic ‘pinch point’ for cars etc, not a pedestrian crossing.
Harsher punishments for not cleaning up after your dogs. I walk a lot and the worst thing is having to avoid patches of feces. Enforce the rules and actually drop £1,000 fines on people.