East Suffolk Council
Quiet Lanes Suffolk
Arising from our focus on Active Travel in 2019, our Travel Forum, held on World Environment Day, resulted in a mandate from Greenprint members present, to pursue the principle of expanding on the smaller number of Quiet Lanes that were established in East Suffolk in 2013/14, as part of the original pilot.
Following this, the Greenprint Forum secured initial funding from the former East Suffolk Partnership, which shortly afterwards was given a massive boost by the Suffolk County Council 2020 Fund, enabling the development of a self-help process for parishes to seek designations of Quiet Lanes at minimal cost through a county-wide project led by community demand. The project has also received funding support from Babergh and Mid Suffolk District Councils, as well as volunteer support from every Parish Council touched by the project.
The designation of a Quiet Lane seeks to maintain the existing tranquillity of a suitable rural road and encourage the use of it through active and sustainable means such as walking, cycling, and horse riding, thus contributing to the Greenprint Forum’s goal on Active Travel.
Upon completion of the project in 2023, the core volunteer project team, in close liaison with the Suffolk Highways and volunteers in every parish that participated,have now secured the designation of 382 quiet lanes in 129 parishes county wide, totalling 480.5 km.
In September 2022, the core volunteer project team won the Colonel Probert Award for Best Community or Volunteer Group at the Suffolk Community Awards, a great accolade in recognition of the delivery of this legacy project thanks to “people power”.
Find out more about the Quiet Lanes Suffolk project.
Case Study into the project Quiet Lanes Suffolk
Read a technical case study into the project, outlining its origin and background, its results, key deliverables and lessons learnt, as well as accounts from one of the parish councils involved, and one of the volunteer members of the core project management team.