Pedal Power

Issue 168
January 2024

Transport Plans for Charnwood 2026-2036

From Max Hunt

Local Planning Authorities, like Charnwood, need a Local Plan. Without that they can’t approve new housing where it’s needed and not where it’s not. That’s the theory anyway. Charnwood’s Plan is currently under close scrutiny by Government Inspectors. They will visit the town for the third time in February to hear more evidence in public on the transport infrastructure and if it can be paid for.

The principal basis of the Plan’s transport measures is “firstly to seek to reduce overall levels of carborne trips through maximising sustainable travel opportunities”; other measures are “secondary”, it says.

However, the whole transport package is estimated at over £180m, way beyond what the developers are prepared to pay. Most of the highways work would be to increase the volume or speed at which motorised traffic can navigate the A6 and A6004 junctions. Safer pedestrian routes around the Allendale roundabout have been requested, but sadly don’t feature. There is £10m allocated for public transport, sadly without new bus lanes or new bus routes into the planned housing estates. But readers may be pleased to see £38m is allocated for Loughborough Cycling and Walking Infrastructure.

But this is all theory because the County Council has no money to contribute and depends only on making bids for funds like Network North (money transferred from HS2). Without the money the plan is deemed “unviable”.

The answer from the County Council is to “focus on only one modal element”. This implies removing of passenger transport and active travel modes from the funding package. This is highly questionable and it is not yet clear if it will be proposed at the Public Hearing in the Town Hall starting on 20th February.

For the Transport Plan and Viability Reports see Exam75 and 76 (6.11) in https://www.charnwood.gov.uk/pages/examination_documents

Cycleway Speak

Talking to Persimmon Homes or Charnwood Planners about cycling and walking surfaces can leave you lost for words. As with all professionals, you have to speak their language: Don’t be tricked by “hoggin”; it’s just compacted gravel which doesn’t last, and don’t say “tarmac”, say “sealed surface”. If you can add to the builders’ (or planners) speak, let the editor know!

Putting cycling and walking on the map

With regard to the article on this topic in the last issue of Pedal Power, Anthony Kay has come up with the some suggestions. However, he ran out of inspiration for naming some of the routes and would welcome your ideas.

• Continuing from the end of Beacon Road (at the junction with Valley Road), the first short section of the bridleway is tarmacked, with a narrow footpath off to the left joining to Craven Close, and then a broader sealed surface track to the right, to the end of Moat Road. The latter could be called "Ariadne’s Way”, since it was a muddy trod before Ariadne Tampion got its surface sealed during her stint on the Borough Council.
• There are a lot of paths on the Fairmeadows, Haddon Way and Grange Park estates that should be named. In particular: a path that winds its way from the end of Spindle Road (near Rainbows) to Michie Road. Proceeding along this path, from the Spindle Road end, a path off to the left leads to the junction of Fairmeadows Way and Haddon Way. Then off to the right there is a path that goes all the way round the west and south sides of the Haddon Way estate; maybe call this “Mucklin Way", since it comes out near Mucklin Lodge at its east end.
• Passing alongside Mucklin Wood there is the track through to Beaumanor, which could obviously be called “Beaumanor Way”; the first section of this is a good example of how crushed stone surfaces tend to break up after a while.
• Finally, the “Mucklin Way" path joins the path round the south side of the Grange Park estate, and eventually becomes Burnaston Way where there are houses along it (so should this name be applied to the whole length of the path?). There is also the path from Burnaston Way through the Grange linear Park wildlife area, parallel to Allendale Road.
• There is a useful cut-through from the John Boden Way estate to Manor Drive, which doesn’t appear to have a name.
• In Shelthorpe, crossing Manor Road from the end of Manor Drive, there is a path through to Pulteney Avenue.
• In the Grange Park estate, there is the public footpath from Highland Drive (near the junction of Poplar Road and Manor Road), which has a sealed surface as far as where it meets the path round the south side of the estate.
• There is the cycle path from Knox Road towards Magnolia Way, but the link through to Magnolia Way remains unfinished.

Pot Hole Casualties

Based on an article at www.cyclinguk.org

In the past seven years, at least 255 people have been killed or seriously injured while cycling due to the UK’s crumbling roads. Therefore the recently announced additional funding for tackling this problem is very welcome. However Cycling UK has pointed out that the guidance for highway engineers needs to be updated if the risk of death and serious injury for cyclists is to be substantially reduced. Cycling UK wants the UK Roads Leadership Group, which is responsible for creating the guidance given to road traffic engineers across the UK, to make sure its guidance no longer ignores road defects that impact people cycling.

This guidance was last updated in 2016, and the group ignored evidence submitted by Cycling UK calling for these changes. The guidance on inspecting roads and paths, and then deciding which repairs are necessary, overlooks the safety needs for people cycling. This means cracks and other defects which specially affect the narrower tyres of bicycles are not always considered as requiring repair, despite their increased risk of causing death or serious injury.

Improving Road Safety

Andy Cox of the Metropolitan Police has written a blog on what can be done to improve safety for all road users, including cyclists. This is summarised below. The full blog can be read at http://tinyurl.com/bp99u5ty .

During 2022 within the UK, 1,711 people died in a road crash, which included 91 cyclists. In order to reduce these numbers, he believes that more effective road policing would save lives and tackle crime.

To achieve this he advocates a bespoke road safety advisory group to facilitate meaningful dialogue between key stakeholders. To be effective, roads policing must have an intelligence-led focus on the few, rather than the many, by targeting the riskiest roads, drivers and themes.

He is an advocate of “amplified deterrence”. By targeting priority roads with strict enforcement and publicising this, the numbers killed and seriously injured in collisions can be much reduced.

Speeding must be an absolute focus as a primary contributory factor present in fatal crashes. The police should intensify patrols within 20mph and 30mph zones, recognising the fact that vulnerable road users are more likely to be present. Dramatically increasing enforcement in these areas is a key part of supporting safer roads.

Police cannot be everywhere all the time, so enabling the public to report road crime via journeycam is a ‘game changer’ for road safety. The driver may believe that no police or speed cameras are present, but will know the driver in the vehicle next to them is equally able to help enforce offences. That is a real deterrence and has huge benefits to enforcement and crash investigations.

He believes it to be crucial to have a bespoke system nationally in which the public can report road crimes, with one place to report, and with one team reviewing all submissions.

The perceived ‘culture war’ between some cyclists and drivers he finds frustrating. Share the roads safely must be the overarching principle.

He points out that the police do prosecute cycling offences but do so proportionally compared to the risk posed. Less than 0.25% of annual road deaths in the UK are the consequence of a cyclist; the police prioritise enforcement against those posing the greater risk.

How society views the roads and how people behave on them influences manufacturers. It is all interconnected. The public needs to reject speeding as acceptable, if manufacturers and advertisers are to stop selling speed and power as desirable features on cars.

We need to eradicate a culture where dangerous road use has become an accepted part of life. Speed-limiting technology is available now and if implemented would save many lives. Why are we still waiting to introduce this?

Legislation must be strengthened so that pleading exceptional hardship, after consistently breaking the law and endangering other road users, should not be allowed. An extreme speeder at excess of 150mph is punished very differently to somebody searched and found to be carrying a knife. Both present risk but often the driver escapes any form of significant sentence. Recently an offender who had driven at 118mph in a 30mph zone, killing one person and seriously injuring another, was sentenced to seven years in prison, followed by just a five-year driving ban.

Driving should not be seen as an entitlement, but instead be a privilege granted and maintained through a proven safety record. More long-term or life-long driving bans would be appropriate.

Words matter and we must stop using the word ‘accident’ when describing crashes. This implies it was just one of those things, it couldn’t be helped, or it was just bad luck. In fact crashes are often about a driver’s choice to be selfish, dangerous or reckless and as such we should describe it as a collision or crash.