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.
Lib Dem, Green, and Independent Group announcement
You can find their county councillors at write to them.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Cycle Ipswich have objected to the proposed car park by Ipswich Borough Council on Portman Road.
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.
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
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:
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
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.
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.
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.
You can join in the discussion on the Cycle Ipswich Google Group, and Cycle Ipswich Cyclescape groups.
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.
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).
Suffolk County Council have opened the Ipswich Waterfront to allow more people to get their daily exercise whilst maintaining the 2 metre social distancing to minimise the spread of the COVID-19 virus. This is a fantastic opportunity to trial having no motor vehicles along here in the longer term, as it can get particularly busy in the warmer weather, when the social distancing isn’t required, making it difficult to pass other people.
Would you like to see this scheme made permanent?
Would you like to see other streets in Ipswich opened to more pleasant walking and cycling by reducing motor vehicle traffic? There is due to be an announcement soon about emergency funding to enable local authorities to pay for “pop-up” cycling and walking infrastructure.
We’re having a virtual meeting to discuss this on Wednesday 6th May 2020.
Please answer the above questions by writing to your local councillors (both county and borough), and the Suffolk County Council Councillor for Transport, Andrew Reid. Please also let us know via the comments below, the Cycle Ipswich Google Group, or via Cyclescape.