East Suffolk Council

Posted by on 9 November 2022 | Comments

A new planning document has been officially adopted by East Suffolk Council to enhance its cycling and walking network.

After gaining Cabinet approval in October, and following the prescribed ‘call-in’ period, the new East Suffolk Council Cycling and Walking Strategy will now be implemented to ensure that communities have access to high quality infrastructure across the district.

The strategy sets out to create safe, coherent, direct, comfortable and attractive cycling, walking and wheeling environments that lead to improvements in health and wellbeing, facilitate greater social interaction and play, encourage more environmentally sustainable lifestyles, reduce road congestion and support economic growth.

In order to create these environments, the strategy identifies cycling and walking infrastructure recommendations across East Suffolk, including in the Broads Authority Area.

Two rounds of consultation informed preparation of the strategy. An initial consultation in October/December 2020 was followed by public consultation on the draft strategy between November 2021 and January 2022.

Cllr David Ritchie, cabinet member for Planning and Coastal Management, said:

“By adopting this strategy, I am pleased to say that we have secured a long-term plan for the infrastructure of cycling, walking and wheeling environments across the district.

“In turn, this has the potential to bring about a shift in the way we get around, encouraging more environmentally sustainable modes of travel, and ultimately leading to improvements in health and wellbeing.

“A lot of good work has gone into designing a strategy that recommends enhancements in both rural and urban parts of East Suffolk, including routes between and through settlements, and we look forward to again engaging with our communities when it comes to considering further details.”

The strategy can be viewed here in a webpage-based, interactive form. Alternatively, a PDF version can be viewed here.