Active Travel
In November 2019, hosted by Sir Gary Streeter MP and supported by the community college, Ivybridge Town Council and many others, we launch our Street Design Campaign to encourage walking and cycling for short journeys instead of using cars. We were keen to engage the community on their views and started the process with an Active Travel talk by James Cleeton, Regional Director of Sustrans together with two further talks from neighbours who want similar things.
We secured £16,000 funding for Sustrans for a study to explore the needs in and arround Ivyrbidge. Sustrans undertook two drop-in sessions at The Watermark to cancav local opinions and generate ideas about what was needed.
In June 2021 the report was finished and is available here.
The biggest barrier to walking and cycling locally is the feeling that it is not safe. Our paths are too narrow and cycling is positively dangerous. Yet our population is increasing rapidly and at peak times there is very little room for cars either while there are limited choices to park for people who work around the town.
The report shows people want healthier and happier places. It came as no surprise that the community college wants change but it did surprise us how many people with mobility issues are unable to walk safely to their destinations.
Working with Sustrans, the town council and many of our local councilors, this is what we are doing to make walking and cycling easier:
In November 2019, hosted by Sir Gary Streeter MP and supported by the community college, Ivybridge Town Council and many others, we launch our Street Design Campaign to encourage walking and cycling for short journeys instead of using cars. We were keen to engage the community on their views and started the process with an Active Travel talk by James Cleeton, Regional Director of Sustrans together with two further talks from neighbours who want similar things.
We secured £16,000 funding for Sustrans for a study to explore the needs in and arround Ivyrbidge. Sustrans undertook two drop-in sessions at The Watermark to cancav local opinions and generate ideas about what was needed.
In June 2021 the report was finished and is available here.
The biggest barrier to walking and cycling locally is the feeling that it is not safe. Our paths are too narrow and cycling is positively dangerous. Yet our population is increasing rapidly and at peak times there is very little room for cars either while there are limited choices to park for people who work around the town.
The report shows people want healthier and happier places. It came as no surprise that the community college wants change but it did surprise us how many people with mobility issues are unable to walk safely to their destinations.
Working with Sustrans, the town council and many of our local councilors, this is what we are doing to make walking and cycling easier:
- Have applied to Highways England for £4 million to transform the route from Plymouth boundary to Ivybridge train station
- Working with Devon highways engineers to ensure that house builders for the eastern development build good quality traffic-free routes to suit local needs
- Respond to consultations for the proposed (Aldi) supermarket in Leonards Road to show how the development can be redesigned to make it easier to walk and cycle with provision for all day cycle parking. We, of course, want to see a new town square and open up the river and these too have been shown.
- Liaising with Dartmoor National Park Authority how we can build a traffic free route to Bittaford
- Identified many smaller projects where we think improvements are possible
