Ham and West Park residents to be consulted on safer, greener travel schemes

Residents in Ham and West Park are being invited to share their views on proposed road safety improvements for the two neighbourhoods.

The Council is developing two ‘Safer and Sustainable Travel’ schemes, which aim to improve road safety and encourage more walking and cycling.

Ham and West Park are very busy communities with around 4,000 households combined, as well as and several schools.

Both schemes will improve access to Plymouth’s strategic cycle network – which passes through the two areas – and complement improvements that are being made between Ham, West Park and the city centre as part of the Council’s successful bid to the Department for Transport’s Cycle Safety Fund.

Proposals include new 20mph zones for both neighbourhoods, with traffic calming measures aimed at lowering vehicle speeds in residential streets and making them better, safer places to live. Similar measures have been successful in other parts of the city such as Whitleigh.

Councillor Philippa Davey, the Council’s Cycling Commissioner, said: “20mph zones reduce the number of road casualties and their severity. Lower traffic speeds also help to make people feel safer when they are walking and cycling and improve local residents’ quality of life, as well as help to reduce pollution.”

The Council is inviting residents to share their views about road safety, local speeding hot spots and ways it could encourage more walking, cycling and bus use through the two schemes. The Safer and Sustainable Travel programme is community-led and feedback will be used to help develop the proposals.

Consultation leaflets will shortly be sent out to households in the two areas and the proposals will also be on display in North Prospect and West Park Libraries between Tuesday 3 and Tuesday 17 September. Members of the project team will be at North Prospect Library on Thursday 12 September between 3pm and 5pm and at West Park library on Tuesday 10 September between 3pm and 5pm to answer questions.

The schemes have a total combined budget of £360,000, which includes £180,000 from the DfT Cycle Safety Fund.

For more information about the two schemes and copies of the consultation leaflets visit www.plymouth.gov.uk/hamsafertravel and www.plymouth.gov.uk/westparksafertravel. Feedback from the consultation will be published on these pages later in the year. You can also request a leaflet by calling 01752 668000.

Information about the city’s strategic cycle network is available at www.plymouth.gov.uk/cycling/strategiccyclenetwork.

The local cycle network is being upgraded as part of Plymouth’s successful bid to the Department for Transport’s Cycle Safety Fund. The upgraded cycle route will provide a safer, more convenient alternative to the main roads (A386/Tavistock Road, A3064/Weston Mill Drive/St Budeaux Bypass and A38/The Parkway) which are perceived by many to be too dangerous to cycle on. For more details visit www.plymouth.gov.uk/centralparktohonicknowle.