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.
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.
The project is being facilitated by Cowes-based sustainable travel consultancy People Powered CIC, which has already undertaken an LCWIP for the Cowes area. 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 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 at www.yourviews.org.uk until Sunday 26th June 2022.
In addition to the web-based map, open evenings have been planned for locations in all three parishes. They are:
- Monday 6th June, 18:00-20:00, St Helens Community Centre
- Saturday 11th June, 11:00-13:00, St Mary’s Church Hall, Brading
- Saturday 11th June, 15:00-17:00, Bembridge Village Hall
Comments can also be sent in by email to [email protected] or by post to any of the parish council offices.
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.
Completion of the LCWIP is scheduled for Autumn 2022.
Can’t think that there is a single dedicated cycle track in any of the three areas.
It’s East Wight remember, not West Wight.
If they actually cut down overgrowth on existing public footpaths that would be enough, instead of unnecessarily messing around with pavements.
R.Monkey, as it is most public footpaths are bendy, narrow and the surfaces not suitable for cycles.
It would cost a fortune to resurface as most being narrow can’t allow dumper access.
To widen them suitably would mean ripping out ancient hedgerows, and in most cases compulsory purchasing private land.
Sadly the up and coming cyclists will consist of more and more electric bikes, which are akin to silent mopeds. As the 2nd hand market makes such cheap, the wrong sort will use such and make the once safe and pleasant stroll with dogs and children on footpaths into a dangerous fraught environment.
Agree need dedicated tracks
I agree, also reduce the height of the hedges so motorists can see the cyclists. Also force the farmers to do their legal requirement and maintain drainage ditches and not to spread the roads with mud.
A dedicated cycle path would be great, but the cost, logistics and harm to alter existing footpaths would be too great.
Most f.p’s are very narrow, twisting and are bordered by ancient hedges and trees. The surface of many being narrow is eroded and would require huge expense to widen them enough to cater for cycles and walkers alike.
Most would need all or huge amounts of hedges and wildlife taken out to widen them to allow plant machinery access to re-surface
We also now have the up and coming ebikers, not just dedicated cyclists but louts who can afford such illegal altered to tear dangerously on once quiet gentle places.
This all sounds like a wonderful plan to make life safer, cleaner and more pleasant for cyclists and pedestrians alike.
Yet the long term master plan is to curb car ownership to the few.
Whilst this time of year a cycle ride is lovely, not so when the rain, the biting wind is against you for half the year, and all we have done is sacrifice our safety and comfort just to watch ‘the important’ people sail past us in a climate controlled warm dry car as we wobble about drenched on ebikes.
All for improving cycle tracks so long as there remains a choice of take the car or use the cycle, just fear,one day ‘choice’ will be taken
Why so many different agendas?
The biggest issue by far is the chaos generated by dropping off and picking up school kids with cars. It gets worse not better. And it’s got to be a factor for child obesity. In days gone by it was either bus, cycle, or walk, nothing else. How has it become what it is today?
Better street lighting or actual lighting at all,especially on hazardous roads. Seems to be same roads always having crashes on them like Beaper Shute
Please give them a copy of the highway code, many don’t realise they have responsibilities too, more so cyclist