Birstall Parish Council

laura.p.shepherd@leics.gov.uk

And copying in the following persons:

Highways Customer Services - highwayscustomerservices@leics.gov.uk

John Sinnott – Chief Executive of Leicestershire County Council - john.sinnott@leics.gov.uk

Ann Carruthers – Director of Environment & Transport – ann.carruthers@leics.gov.uk

The response that I received can be seen below:

Dear Sir/Madam,

Thank you for your correspondence, below is further information which will hopefully answer any queries you have.

As part of the Department for Transport's (DfT) Covid-19 ongoing Recovery Plans to enable Safer Alternative Emergency Active Travel, Local councils were invited to bid for the first Tranche of DfT funding. The types of scheme included in the Tranche 1 submission support the movement of pedestrians and cyclists where public transport capacity is reduced. The measures include; reallocating road space for active travel, cycle connections on public transport corridors, closing roads to traffic to reduce severance and conflict for pedestrians and cyclists, and improving connectivity to existing cycle networks.

Leicestershire County Council submitted a bid and were subsequently awarded £335k to deliver three temporary schemes aiming to encourage and support more active travel as a result of the Covid-19 restrictions on public transport. As a condition of the funding, the Government stipulated that Councils must design and begin constructing schemes within four weeks of receiving the funding, which unfortunately meant that there was no time to consult on the proposals, as we would have liked. We did however notify key stakeholders including local councillors, emergency services, residents and businesses along the A6, A47 and Kettering Road.

The cycle corridor on the A6 Loughborough Road in both directions, will be created by removing central road markings, narrowing existing traffic islands and the removal of some traffic islands. When considering the removal of traffic islands to accommodate the new infrastructure, we took into account the need for pedestrian crossing provision, which has been retained at key locations shown on the attached plan.

The safety of cyclists and other road users will be further improved by implementing a temporary 30mph speed limit and temporary right turn bans from the A6 between Sibson Road/Greengate Lane junction and the Red Hill Way roundabout. Right turning provision will be retained at Greengate lane, Sibson Road, Beechfield Avenue, Johnson Road, Goscote Hall Road and Station Road junctions. The decision was made to introduce the right turn bans to aid traffic flow along the A6 and reduce the risk of conflict between cyclists and motorists. The locations of these changes can be seen on the attached plan.

For a short length along the outbound dual carriageway (near the petrol station), bollards are being placed along the length of the cycle lane, the remainder of the proposed cycle lane will be denoted by road markings. Where pedestrian crossing refuges are being retained (applicable at the A6 and A47), short sections of cycle lanes are omitted due to insufficient width at these locations, it is expected that cyclists will take up the more dominant position of the road to pass the refuges and re-join the proposed cycle lane after a short length. The proposed infrastructure will be closely monitored and bollards will be installed if necessary.

Leicestershire County Council will be installing data collection cameras in mid-August to closely monitor traffic flows, pedestrian flows and any conflict between cyclists and motorists 24 hours a day. The data collected will also inform future works.

If you would like further information on this project, please see www.leicestershire.gov.uk/covid-travel-fund which will be updated regularly.

Kind regards,

Laura Shepherd - Assistant Engineer
Asset & Major Programmes Team » Less