Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plans: Calderdale
The West Yorkshire Combined Authority and Calderdale Council are developing Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plans for West Yorkshire.
What is the draft Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plan for Calderdale?
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 Calderdale.
Why are we developing a Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plan for Calderdale?
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 Calderdale district.
How are we developing Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Strategies?
We are developing Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plans for Calderdale 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 Calderdale Cycling Strategy.
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 Calderdale 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 Calderdale includes plans to improve walking in Halifax town centre and Park Ward, and plans to improve cycling provision in Brighouse.
For walking, Halifax town centre and Park Ward was chosen because there has been investment in the pedestrian environment of Halifax town centre through partial pedestrianisation in recent years. There remains issues of severance of the town centre, in particular from local communities in Park Ward, which is caused in part by transport infrastructure. The focus of initial LCWIP work will be on key walking routes into Halifax town centre from Park ward, seeking to overcome severance by the A58.
A walking network map has been developed for Halifax town centre and Park Ward, and a programme of improvements for walking into the town centre from Park Ward has been identified.
For cycling, Brighouse was chosen as an area that is located centrally between Halifax, Bradford and Huddersfield with significant travel to those areas, and to Leeds slightly further to the east. The LCWIP process offers potential to identify infrastructure improvements which ensure good provision for existing residents, and future residents and employees at new development sites.
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 into Brighouse town centre have been assessed in more detail, from Bailiff Bridge in the north, and Rastrick in the south.
More information on the development process is provided in the full document of the draft phase one LCWIP for Calderdale 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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