Consultation proposed on cycling and walking plan

Designing a transport system that positively persuades people out of their cars because they want to and to help cut congestion and pollution, boost everyone’s health and wellbeing and protect the district’s World Heritage Sites is at the heart of the draft Canterbury District Local Plan To 2045.

Canterbury City Council’s Cabinet will be asked for its permission to consult on that plan alongside the draft Local Cycling and Walking Implementation Plan at its meeting on Wednesday 19 October.

The draft Local Cycling and Walking Implementation Plan looks at developing a network of safe and convenient walking and cycling routes as well as ways of making it happen on the ground and working out how it will be paid for.

Cllr Barbara Anne Flack, Cabinet Member for Place with responsibility for transport, said: “We want to know what people make of our vision to remove through-traffic from the city’s congested but only partial ring road and its rat runs – the draft Local Cycling and Walking Implementation Plan is a key component of that vision.

“We want to know how people feel about creating dedicated road space for walking, cycling and other sustainable modes of transport, and reallocating swathes of city centre road space for a new generation of public transport – unshackling the bus station from gridlock and thus creating a new-found viability for frequent, reliable and cheap public transport across our city, district and beyond.

“Where will the cars go? We’ve never believed that declaring war on the car driver was the route to cleaner, safer cities or economic growth and we want to know if the public shares that belief.

“We think car drivers want sensibly planned cities with well thought-out routes and we’ll be interested in what the public has to say.”

If permission to consult is granted by the Cabinet, the draft Local Cycling and Walking Implementation Plan will be discussed by the Overview and Scrutiny Committee as part of the consultation process on Thursday 10 November 2022.

Published: 11 October 2022