It’s great news for Warwickshire’s Active Travel schemes as the County Council receives £4.761 Million to support the delivery of active travel schemes across the county.
The funding, from Active Travel England, comes from the Active Travel Fund 4 (ATF4), which is a capital funding opportunity to support in the uptake of active travel for everyday trips.
This vital funding will help to make the following planned schemes a reality:
The A47 Hinckley Road Walking, Wheeling and Cycling Scheme in Nuneaton
£1,15 Million in funding will allow Warwickshire County Council to deliver approximately 2.2km of new cycling infrastructure on the A47 Hinckley Road corridor between the edge of Nuneaton town centre and Eastboro Way. This scheme will provide new opportunities for cycling trips to key destinations including the town centre, railway station, Etone College (secondary school) and North Warwickshire and Leicestershire College. With the County Council also delivering the A47 Long Shoot cycle route between Eastboro Way and the A5, this new funding will complete a key route between Nuneaton and Hinckley.
Kenilworth to Leamington Spa Cycle Route (K2L) Section 1a (town centre to town boundary) and 1b (town boundary to Blackdown)
K2L is a flagship active travel scheme and £961k of funding has been secured towards the first two sections of the route. The route is being delivered in sections and the new funding will pay for enhancements to Section 1a (town centre to town boundary). Construction of this section of K2L started in January and will be completed later in the year. The funding will also contribute to the delivery of Section 1b which will extend the route to Blackdown. The County Council is also continuing to work on the design of the remainder of the route north of Blackdown.
Connecting Communities (Leamington Spa to Rugby)
£2.65 Million has been secured for the Leamington Spa to Rugby cycle route, which connects the expanding communities of Leamington Spa, Rugby, Southam and other smaller rural communities.
The highest value funded scheme, £2.5 Million has been awarded to deliver the Leamington Spa to Rugby, Lias Line eastern section upgrade. This work will be undertaken by Sustrans which owns the Lias Line and will extend the recently completed route improvements between Long Itchington and Fosse Way east towards Birdingbury.
A further £150k was awarded to pay for design work on the western section of the route between the Fosse Way and Leamington Spa. This will include design work to upgrade the Offchurch Greenway and the preparation of concept designs for improved connections to Radford Semele and Leamington town centre.
Cllr Jan Matecki, Warwickshire County Council Portfolio Holder for Transport and Planning, said: “We are absolutely delighted to have secured this funding towards the cost of delivering these three key inter-urban strategic active travel schemes in Warwickshire.
“As a Council, we have ambitious plans to extend the reach and quality of our cycling network so that cycling can be the go-to travel choice, particularly for short urban journeys, and this is perfectly complimented by this huge funding boost for three of our key schemes, including our flagship Kenilworth to Leamington Project.”
Edward Healey, Senior Technical Network Development Manager (Midlands and East) at Sustrans, said: "The news about additional funding for active Travel in Warwickshire is very exciting, especially for the Lias Line. Over the last few years, we’ve already transformed 4.2km of disused railway into Warwickshire’s longest greenway as part of our Paths for Everyone programme. So, we welcome any additional investment to complete the next section of this off-road greenway route between Leamington Spa and Rugby. And we’re looking forward to working closely with our partners to improve the National Cycle Network in Warwickshire for the benefit of local people."
Find out more about the local authority's active travel capability ratings on the Active Travel England website: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/local-authority-active-travel-capability-ratings
Find out more about active travel in Warwickshire on the new active travel webpages
Find out more about: developing Warwickshire’s cycling network
Find out more about the recent Government funding for active travel: Healthy, cost-effective travel for millions as walking and cycling projects get the green light