Categories
general News

Ipswich Cycling and Walking Charter

Cycle Ipswich have launched a new initiative to encourage local organisations and individuals to express their support for measures to enable walk and cycle safely and enjoyably in and around Ipswich.  We have done this by creating a “charter” – a shared statement of views that is designed to be both clear and positive and also broad in its appeal. It has a separate identity and website to Cycle Ipswich (IpswichCWcharter.org.uk) and we emphasise that signing up to the charter does not mean one has to agree with every policy Cycle Ipswich puts forward.

We have based our charter closely on similar initiatives in Exeter, where we understand that the idea originated, Chelmsford, Colchester, Winchester, and the West Midlands.

Despite our focus being on cycling, it was felt that other modes of active travel, particularly walking should be included and the Ipswich group of Living Streets (https://www.livingstreets.org.uk/get-involved/local-groups/ipswich) have agreed to get involved and to promote the charter alongside us.

Although it is early days – the charter was launched in February 2021, representatives of all four main political parties active in the area have signed up, as well as major local organisations including University of Suffolk, Ipswich Town, Suffolk County Council and Ipswich Borough Council have already signed up.

Once we have collected a sufficiently large body of signatories, the plan is to use the charter and our contacts with those who have signed to increase pressure for positive change, as well as providing signatories with useful information about steps they can take as an employer, a school, a business etc.  We can also use news updates to those signatories who have ticked the box for them to increase awareness of new developments, consultations and campaigns.

Please add your name at IpswichCWcharter.org.uk and pass the word on to your employer, school, and business partners, to encourage them to do the same.

Categories
Consultation Meeting News

Default 20mph Suffolk County Council motion

Would you like to see 20mph as the default speed limit in built up areas within Suffolk? If so, it’s worth emailing your county councillor regarding a motion on this proposal at the next Suffolk County Council meeting on Thursday 22nd October 2020.

Committee agenda and minutes

Lib Dem, Green, and Independent Group announcement

You can find their county councillors at write to them.

Categories
News Schools Training

Free Family Cycle Training

Suffolk County Council are providing free cycle training sessions with bikeability trainers. Priority is given to families who would like to cycle with their children.

You can book a free roughly 3 hour session via the Suffolk Roadsafe website where there is an email address for the cycle training team.

Advert for the free cycling sessions by SuffolkRoadsafe
Advert for the free cycling sessions by SuffolkRoadsafe
Categories
News Routes

Cycle Lane Wands now installed on Princes Street and Portman Road

Suffolk County Council are continuing their cycling and walking improvements, as part of the transport recovery plan 2020.

Over the past 2 nights cycle lanes have repainted on Princes Street, with wands installed to make a safer space for people cycle, particularly for people who don’t currently cycle or only cycle a little, and would like to cycle more if they had a space where they felt safe to do so.

Portman Road has also had cycle lanes with wands added and parking removed.

Cycle Ipswich look forward to more of these wands being installed on other streets, particularly busier roads. These are an emergency measure as a stepping stone to more permanent kerb based protection in the longer term.

This new cycle infrastructure has been funded through a pot of money by central government to enable a step change in the walking and cycling infrastructure to prevent a grid lock by people shifting to private motor vehicles as we come out of the current pandemic. Suffolk’s bid was very strong, hence getting more than the indicative allocated funding.

Categories
Consultation News Survey

Take action: Support Suffolk’s new walking and cycling schemes

Suffolk County Council are interested in hearing people’s view on the new walking and cycling proposals. Details of the proposed schemes are available on the Suffolk County Council website.

You can send your feedback and additional idea to Suffolk County Council by emailing transport.schemes@suffolk.gov.uk. Cycle Ipswich are also interested in hearing people’s ideas via our usual contact channels.

2020-06-09 Wellesley Road Barriers
2020-06-09 Wellesley Road Barriers

Cycle Ipswich are keen that as many of the schemes are implemented as possible, with a push for further improvements where appropriate, for example expanding road closures to cover a whole area between 2 main roads to prevent rat running between main roads, creating a full quieter neighbourhood similar to the GoDutch scheme in Waltham Forrest in London.

Some councillors have expressed an interest in hearing people’s views too, so also send them a copy of the email. You can find out your local councillors by using writetothem, or the council websites.

Categories
Consultation

Cycle Ipswich object to new multi-storey car park in Ipswich

Cycle Ipswich have objected to the proposed car park by Ipswich Borough Council on Portman Road.

Map showing the proposed layout of the new car park.
Plan of the site from the planning documents

The objection sent to Ipswich Borough Council is shown below:

Cycle Ipswich are objecting to the multi storey car off Portman Road, application number 20/00398/OUTI3.

1.

Suffolk County Council are including Portman Road as a North/South route linking the railway station to the north of the town as a quiet cycle route. This is part of the emergency measures due to the current social distancing: https://www.suffolk.gov.uk/council-and-democracy/council-news/show/suffolks-plan-for-more-walking-and-cycling and also draws from the routes being proposed by the Policy Development Panel for the LCWIP.

Sir Alf Ramsey Way, Portman Road, and Great Gipping Street are part of National Cycle Route 51. The National Cycle Network is meant to be low motor traffic to enable more people to cycle safely, especially children.

Map showing National Cycle Route 51 passing the planned car park.
Map showing National Cycle Route 51 passing the planned car park.

Considering the above plans, having an entrance to the car park and encouraging more motor vehicle movements along Portman Road should not be allowed, as this will make the road more dangerous for walking and cycling.

2.

The details of the cycle parking don’t appear to be included in the plans, and seem to be an afterthought.

3.

On match days motor vehicle movements around the stadium should be minimised by closing all nearby car parks to all vehicles except coaches, buses, blue badge holders, cyclists, and other small wheeled transport, also running shuttle buses from/to the park and ride sites. This would prevent the grid lock and increased air pollution that happens on the streets near the stadium before and after each match.

4. 

Both Suffolk County Council and Ipswich Borough Council have called a climate emergency. How can building a car park and encouraging more people to drive into the town centre align with the climate emergency? How does this proposal help to tackle climate change? It’s also worth noting Ipswich Local Plan (2017) Policy Summary CS1 regarding the need for sustainable development to tackle climate change.

5.

With regard to Ipswich Local Plan (2017) Policy Summary, Policy CS20 around “aims to reduce dependency on the private car by 15%”, how does this planning application contribute to this?

6. 

Ipswich Borough Council and Suffolk County Council have statutory obligation to have legal levels of air pollution. This will require reducing the number of motor vehicles in Ipswich town centre. The relevant guidance is the Local Air Quality Management Technical Guidance (TG16) https://laqm.defra.gov.uk/documents/LAQM-TG16-February-18-v1.pdf

7.

Cycle Ipswich recognises that motor vehicles are required for some journeys, however there is currently too much cheap car parking in Ipswich town centre. This cheap car parking is encouraging more driving, making the roads less safe for people who wish to walk and cycling. It is possible to transport young children and shopping on a bike, where larger items need to be transported car sharing or delivery services (which may be pedal powered on specially built bikes as PedalMe https://pedalme.co.uk in London have shown) are an option.

Shaun McDonald

Cycle Ipswich

Categories
News Routes

SCC announce proposed road plans to help social distancing

Suffolk County Council have announced a series of proposed schemes to help walking, cycling, and other similar modes to be easier with the current pandemic due to the social distancing required to reduce the spread of the virus. The measures need to be implemented very quickly whilst traffic levels are still low from the lockdown. If we wait too long or spend a long time discussing the measures, then it’ll be too late to implement the measures.

Cycle Ipswich are very encouraged by the list, more work will be required longer term to extend some of the measures to create a full network of strategic cycle routes on main roads, and low traffic neighbourhoods.

The emergency measures that have already been implemented should have been implemented years ago. The schemes already implemented are:

Waterfront

Milner Street

Fuchsia Lane Bridge

Wellesley Road Bridge

The new schemes proposed within Ipswich are:

  • Portman Road
  • Rushmere Area
  • Princes Street
  • Colchester Road/Valley Road
  • Bixley Road/Heath Road
  • Bramford Lane
  • Bridge Street Slip Road
  • Rosehill Area
  • Various locations – reduced waiting times to cross roads
  • Various locations – increased cycle parking – Please let us, Suffolk County Council, and your local councillors know where you’d like to see more cycle parking.

Changes have also been proposed as part of the emergency measures in Bury St Edmunds, Beccles, Felixstowe, Stowmarket, and Sudbury.

You can contact your local councillors using WriteToThem. Feed is also being requested by emailing Suffolk County Council at transport.schemes@suffolk.gov.uk

Categories
Consultation News

Cycle Ipswich provide suggestions to aid social distancing

Central Government are providing councils with funding to help provide more social distancing due to the limited capacity on public transport, and the grid lock that would occur if a significant portion of the population would switch from public transport to private cars. This funding is for dramatic changes to help people walk and cycle.

Cycle Ipswich have supplied Suffolk County Council some of their ideas of what could be implemented.

2020-05-06 Waterfront East closure to motor vehicles
2020-05-06 Waterfront East closure to motor vehicles has already been implemented. More like this could be implemented.

There is an interactive map, and also a PDF below:

It’s worth contacting your local councillors with changes, such as closing rat runs, that you would like to see.

Categories
Media Meeting

Cycle Ipswich on BBC Radio Suffolk on 26th May 2020

Ahead of our Zoom meeting on Tuesday 26th May 2020, we were invited on to BBC Radio Suffolk to talk about the funding that central government is making available, and the work we are currently doing to help propose some road improvements to open them up to more walking and cycling.

Thanks to Ian Seeley and Tom Wilmot from Cycle Ipswich for going on air.

You can listen again on the BBC Radio Suffolk website from 35 mins 45 secs for the next 28 days.

The clip is also available below.

Clip of Cycle Ipswich from the BBC Radio Suffolk evening show on 26th May 2020 at 18:34.

You can join in the discussion on the Cycle Ipswich Google Group, and Cycle Ipswich Cyclescape groups.

Categories
Funding News

Suffolk County Council announce upcoming cycle improvements

On Wednesday 13th May 2020 Andrew Reid, cabinet member for highways announced upcoming walking and cycling improvements by opening up roads to more pleasant walking and cycling, through reducing motor vehicle traffic.

Announcement from Andrew Reid, cabinet member for highways, announcing the new walking and cycling improvements on BBC Radio Suffolk. Original Afternoons on BBC Radio Suffolk on 13th May 2020.

Cycle Ipswich is very happy to see Suffolk County Council already working on this ahead of the funding being made available by central government. However we are concerned that the council are not allocating part of their own highways budget towards walking and cycling improvements. This is a continuation of a previous vote by councillors in July 2018 to not allocate 5% of the transport budget to active travel measures.

If you have any ideas of streets that you would like to see opened to more pleasant walking and cycling please contact your local councillor (find out who they are via writetothem), Andrew Reid, and ourselves.

There are more photos available on Mapillary (a crowdsourced street view).