FAQ

Rothwell Greenway is identified as a Leeds Nature Area in recognition of its value to nature and the local community. The Greenway links together Lofthouse, Robin Hood and Rothwell, without the need to use the busy A road network (A654 and A61), with safe, grade segregated crossings. Bullough Lane provides a direct link to the Trans Pennine Trail and the Skelton Lake area. Four schools, including the Rodillian Academy, lie along the route. The ambition to improve the links between the communities of Rothwell, Lofthouse, Robin Hood, Middleton and Belle Isle is recognised in Leeds’ cycling ambition as part of the Cycling Starts Here strategy.

This scheme proposes to refurbish the route along the disused railway and to make positive changes to five locations where the Greenway intersects local streets in order to improve crossing opportunities for both walkers and cyclists. Upgrading the existing facilities in these locations will emphasise the Greenway’s existence and promote its use, therefore encouraging more active and sustainable means of travel.

The proposals for this location are:

·  To enhance and widen the existing Rothwell Greenway to provide a continuous 3 metre wide / 3 mile long route from Long Thorpe Lane (Rodillian School) to Haigh Road in Rothwell. This will provide, for the majority of its length, a car free and safe environment for all residents to travel through Rothwell as well as enjoy high quality greenspace

·  To provide a hard wearing all year weatherproof surface for the whole of the route

·  To introduce safe crossing points/ speed management measures for all minor roads crossing the route

·  To review and replace access barriers to deter motorcycle use where appropriate but provide access to disabled residents, adapted and family cycles

·  To re-grade ramped access

·  A shared footway/ cycle provision is proposed on Styebank Lane (between Haigh Road and Leeds Road) to facilitate a family-friendly cycle link from the Greenway, over Leeds Road and beyond towards Skeltons Lake development, the City Centre, Temple Newsam and Garforth, suitable for novice cyclists

·  To introduce a strategy to signpost the route / promote the route for pedestrians and cyclists.

·  To improve pedestrian and cycling routes from the existing Rothwell Greenway into Lofthouse, Robin Hood, Middleton and Belle Isle, and enhance existing green links between these communities

West Yorkshire Combined Authority is responsible for delivering the scheme. Leeds City Council is working in partnership with the West Yorkshire Combined Authority. The Combined Authority works with Local Authorities and businesses across West Yorkshire and York to create economic growth through large and small scale infrastructure projects such as this.

The estimated cost of the Rothwell Greenway scheme is £1,350,000.

The Greenway has deteriorated over the years and is indistinct and braided in parts, making it difficult to navigate and follow. The lack of hard wearing, weatherproof surface means that that it is usable in good and dry weather by walkers or those using an all-terrain cycles but it does not cater for year round ‘utility’ type journeys such as journeys to school, to the shops or to employment.

The communities of Middleton, Belle Isle, Rothwell, Robin Hood, Lofthouse, Thorpe and East Ardsley are physically separated by from each other by the motorway and major road network. The existing network of local paths and local roads does not meet the expectations of high-quality links able to reconnect these communities and provide safe and attractive routes to schools, local facilities or simply an opportunity to relax and enjoy nature and greenspace.

The aims of the scheme are to:

o  Offer better travel choices, including active travel, by providing better quality and safe pedestrian and cycling routes linking local communities and facilities.

o  Contribute to an overall improvement in air quality and environmental impacts in the district by enabling more people to use sustainable and active modes of travel such as walking and cycling

o  Do nothing – Retain existing quality of pedestrian and cycling routes within this location

o  Low cost option – Retain existing quality of pedestrian and cycling routes within the area but improve wayfinding at a couple of locations along the Greenway

o  Medium cost option – Introduce wayfinding to enable legibility of existing walking and cycling routes, enhance local footpaths and crossing points and implement shared footway/cycle provision - the preferred option which delivers the most benefits regarding improving journey times, reducing congestion and coming within budget

Subject to approval, works will start on site in Summer 2020

Detailed design will commence following this public engagement and is aimed to be completed in Spring 2020.

Following approval of the full business case for this project we expect to begin work on this scheme in Summer 2020.

We welcome the opinions and feedback of anyone. Whether you travel by public transport, walk, drive, or cycle, are a business owner, or just travel through the area, your views, opinion and insight is valuable to us to shape our project. Please share the link [www.yourvoice.westyorks-ca.gov.uk/RRH] with anyone you think would be interested in taking part. If you intend to submit a joint response on behalf of a group/organisation, please share the link with your colleagues/members so they have the opportunity to provide an individual response, should they wish to do so.

The consultation is open from Friday 7 February to Monday 9 March 2020.

You can take part by visiting our website: [www.yourvoice.westyorks-ca.gov.uk/RRH] to review all the latest information, and find a link to a survey/feedback form to submit your views. You can also take part in the question and answer (Q&A) section of the page, if you have any questions not suitably answered by these FAQs. If you would like to submit your feedback by email, please do so to: yourvoice@westyorks-ca.gov.uk, or in writing to: FREEPOST Consultation Team (WYCA).

The scheme is being delivered by West Yorkshire Combined Authority with funding from the Connecting Leeds programme.

In December 2016, Transport Committee considered the submission of the Leeds Strategic Outline Case, which was a £270m package of measures to improve public transport in Leeds District. It included the £173.5m which had previously be identified for the NGT trolleybus project. The documentation was submitted to the Department for Transport in December and is available at: http://www.westyorks-ca.gov.uk/News/Articles/Leeds-Transport-Strategy-submision/ 

Monies from Leeds City Council and the West Yorkshire Combined Authority of £8.800m and £0.966m respectively will increase the funding to £183.266m. The programme also includes private sector finance including expenditure on more environmentally friendly buses by bus operators bringing the total programme investment to over £270m.

Following consideration of the submission, the Department approved the programme on 21 April 2017. The main conditions of the grant from the DfT are that the funding is to be used for public transport improvements in Leeds which must be substantially complete by March 2021. More information about those transport improvements can be found at: https://www.leeds.gov.uk/parking-roads-and-travel/connecting-leeds-and-transforming-travel/

This scheme has funding allocated to it as part of the Connecting Leeds programme and therefore the funding will not be able to be spent on any other proposals or scheme. If the Combined Authority does not accept the business case, then the scheme cannot go ahead and the money put aside for this project will be reallocated elsewhere in the Connecting Leeds programme.

The West Yorkshire Combined Authority was formed in April 2014 to be the driving force for economic growth across the Kirklees, Bradford, Leeds, Calderdale and Wakefield districts and the City of York Council area.  The West Yorkshire Combined Authority brings together key decision making powers into a single body.  To find out more visit: (External link)www.westyorks-ca.gov.uk(External link) (opens in a new page)

An Expression of Interest for funding to investigate locations to improve to investigate locations to improve local walking and cycling routes was approved in 2017. This provided around £80,000 of funding to develop the project to the Outline Business Case stage (OBC).  The OBC develops preliminary designs, undertakes traffic modelling work to determine a preferred option and estimates scheme costs, risk etc.

The OBC was submitted to the Combined Authority’s assurance process in March 2019 and approved in May 2019.  The project is being developed to Full Business Case (FBC), including costs, which includes detailed design, public engagement.  The FBC is expected to be submitted to the assurance process in April 2020, where approval to tender for the works will be made.

It will not be necessary to acquire any land as part of this scheme and no properties are at risk.

There will be no changes to on-street parking in this location. 

There will no changes to the bus routes currently serving these locations.

Work on-site will not impact any bus routes.

Whilst the majority of the proposed works are located off highway, the phasing of those roadworks on the public highway still need to be planned. Nearer the time of construction local residents and businesses will be provided with more detail about what will happen and where, but overall disruption will be kept to a minimum.

It will not be necessary to carry out any roadworks at night. All roadworks will be carried out during the working day, with some work possibly carried out on a weekend.

In certain circumstances, compensation can be paid for loss of amenity and value of property through Part 1 of the Land Compensation Act 1973. Claims through Part 1 of this Act are valid after 12 months of the opening of the scheme.

Compensation is payable if it can be demonstrated that the highway improvements have negatively affected the value of land and buildings. Land and property owners would need to submit a ‘blight claim’ to the Council if they consider that the improvements have negatively impacted on the value of the land and buildings.

There will be no increase in noise levels as a result of the improvements.

There are no perceived direct benefits to bus users with regards to this scheme.

Non-bus users will benefit from these improvements in terms of enhanced pedestrian and cycle routes at this location which will increase the quality of the local environment generally, plus wayfinding signage to make routes more legible and easier to find and follow.

No existing bus stops will be improved as a result of this scheme.

There will be no new bus stops as a result of this scheme.

No bus stops will be taken away as a result of this scheme. 

All bus routes in the area will continue to operate.

In 2016 we started a conversation with people who live and work in Leeds about the future of transport in the city. We had more than 8,000 responses, with a clear message that improvements need to be made to public transport.

A number of schemes were identified from this transport conversation and some small scale engagement took place through the Leeds Community Committees. Since then, local ward members have reviewed the refined list of schemes located in their areas.

We are now at the next stage in developing this scheme and residents, businesses and the general public are now being given an opportunity to comment on these proposals.

From 7 February to 9 March we are running a public engagement and inviting comments and questions from the public. Your comments will help inform the current proposals and provide an opportunity to identify any issues that we are not aware of.

We welcome opinions and feedback from anyone. Whether you travel by public transport, walk, drive, cycle are a business owner or just travel through the area, your views and insight is valuable to us to shape our scheme.

You will be able to fill in an online survey or visit us at a drop-in session. More information about this is on the project page: www.yourvoice.westyorks-ca.gov.uk/RRH.

Yes, we would welcome any group/organisational views on this scheme. Please make sure that you have permission to comment on behalf of your group/organisation.

Yes, please share the link to the project page with anyone you think would be interested in taking part. If you intend to submit a joint response on behalf of a group/organisation, please share the link so people have the opportunity to provide an individual response, should they wish to do so.

Your comments will help inform the current proposals and provide an opportunity to identify any issues that we are not aware of.

Updates will be provided to those who have registered to follow the project via www.yourvoice.westyorks-ca.gov.uk/RRH and via press articles.