Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plans: Bradford
The West Yorkshire Combined Authority and Bradford Council are developing Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plans for West Yorkshire.
What is the draft Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plan for Bradford?
In 2017 the Government published its first Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy (available online – click here to view it), which was accompanied by guidance for local authorities on ways to identify improvements for cycling and walking improvements, through the development of Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plans – known as “LCWIPs”.
More background information on LCWIPs can be found in the full document of the draft phase one LCWIP for Bradford.
Why are we developing a Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plan for Bradford?
Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plans are being developed to help enable funding to be secured to construct all the improvements identified through this work. Although there is currently no guaranteed funding for the improvements in this draft phase one LCWIP, having a Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plan in place will help us decide what improvements to make and will help us make the case to Government for future investment in walking and cycling in Bradford district.
How are we developing Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Strategies?
We are developing Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plans for Bradford alongside each of the other constituent areas within West Yorkshire. Our approach follows government guidance, and builds on work to identify networks for walking and cycling already carried out by partners in the region, and the priorities identified in the Bradford Cycling Strategy, "Keeping the Wheels Spinning".
A lot of work is needed to create a comprehensive Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plan that covers all the urban and rural areas of Bradford district and several phases of development are envisaged. The work underway now should be seen as the first phase of a longer term development process.
For this first phase of work, specific areas of focus were selected for walking and cycling based on a number of factors. Phase one of the LCWIP for Bradford includes plans to improve walking in Keighley town centre and plans to improve cycling provision in south Bradford.
For walking, Keighley town centre offers a busy town centre environment with concentrations of key points of interest at an appropriate size for the first application of the LCWIP approach in Bradford. Analysis of points of interest/trip generators shows the town centre to have one of highest concentrations of trip generators in Bradford district. Particular focus was given to walking routes linking to Keighley College and Keighley railway station, two of the largest trip generators in the town centre.
A walking network map has been developed for Keighley, and a programme of improvements for walking within Keighley town centre has been identified.
For cycling, the opportunity for the south of Bradford city centre to better link Bradford with the existing Spen Valley Greenway was identified, providing a link into neighbouring Kirklees, Calderdale and the new railway station at Low Moor. Focussing on this area also provides a future opportunity to connect any routes that are developed through this initial LCWIP work with the masterplan for the area south of Bradford interchange. Routes to the east and north of Bradford city centre have already been invested in recently through the CityConnect programme.
A network map of desire lines for cycling has been created, and the desire lines identified were then prioritised to identify which routes should be assessed in more detail as part of this phase of work. Two routes have been assessed in more detail – Bradford city centre to Birkenshaw and Laisterdyke to Low Moor.
More information on the development process is provided in the full document of the draft phase one LCWIP for Bradford which can be downloaded using the link below.
Documents
Engagement and next steps
Following a period of public engagement in autumn 2019, a report detailing the feedback received and the next steps is currently being produced. In the meantime, a short engagement summary can be found in the Documents and Plans section of this page.
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