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Funding success for Darlington cycle route plan

Funding success for Darlington cycle route plan
13 November 2020

A high quality cycle route between Darlington Memorial Hospital and the town centre will be created after a successful bid to a Government fund that aims to encourage active travel.

The £905,000 awarded to the Woodland Road scheme is part of a wider Tees Valley Combined Authority (TVCA) bid to create a number of cycle and pedestrian routes across the region. TVCA has received £1.722m from the Active Travel Fund and will be allocating a further £4m from the Transforming Cities Fund monies so that 5 schemes across the Tees Valley can be built as part of the delivery of its Local Walking and Cycling Infrastructure Plan.

The Active Travel Fund, from the Department of Transport, was announced by the Government earlier this summer as part of its commitment to encourage people to cycle to work and school instead of relying on the car. New technical standards were also announced and these now need to be applied to the designs.

The Darlington scheme will link the hospital and Darlington Sixth Form College with the town centre via Duke Street by creating a 1.5m stepped cycle track on both sides of Woodland Road between Hollyhurst Road and West Crescent.

Traffic calming measures will be introduced in the Vane Terrace area and changes will be made to Outram Street to make it safer for cyclists. It is proposed to retain the 20mph speed limit and one way system on Duke Street and introduce a contra flow cycle lane.

The success of the funding bid means that the scheme will form the first phase of a wider project to improve congestion on the A68 between the town centre and West Park, as well as completing a cycling route to West Park Hospital.

Councillor Andy Keir, cabinet member for local services, said: “The success of our funding bid to the Government’s Active Travel Fund is extremely welcome and will provide a boost to our plans to improve cycling routes across the town.

“The link between the hospital and the town centre is a busy one and this scheme will provide a coherent route, one that reallocates road space to cyclists and offers high quality segregation.

“We have evidence that shows people who live and work in this area, or commute to the college or hospital, would be more inclined to cycle if the facilities were available, and that is what we are looking to achieve.”

The next stage is to start consultation on the scheme in mid-December. Details on how people can take part will be released at a later date. Work on the scheme would aim to begin by the end of March 2021 to meet the requirements of the Government funding.

The council has a number of aspirations for cycling and has contributed to the Combined Authority’s Local Cycling and Walking Improvement Plan (LCWIP), which aims to see a step-change in the number of people cycling in the region.

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