After a successful meeting with local councillors, they have confirmed that residents will receive an updated plan on the next phase of the active neighbourhood for both Levenshulme and Burnage on the 26th of November.
2/ Until the date of the announcement when specifics are released, we will be refreshing everyone’s minds by exploring what a “good plan” looks like for this active neighbourhood.
3/ It’s worth bearing in mind the scheme has been supported by a majority of residents at every consultation so far, and we believe these numbers will only grow if MCC elect to take more measures to support active travel.
1/ Levenshulme boundary roads vary in required measures. Some, such as Broom Lane, Barlow Road and Cromwell Grove, have houses that face into the street and narrow roadways that exacerbate the effect traffic and its pollution has on these residents.
2/ In the case of Broom Lane, one section has no pavement at all, providing walking space here should be a priority not just for residents with no safe way to leave their homes but to enable pedestrian travel from Stockport Road without crossing.
3/ Other roads such as Albert Road and Slade Lane have houses set further back from the road and in some places more pavement, however this does seem to encourage worse pavement parking in some cases.
2/ With traffic nationally returning to pre-covid levels, now would be an ideal time for MCC to trial further measures, and secure pre-post intervention monitoring data and evidence that has been unfortunately lacking so far.
3/ This adds to the ever growing evidence base that despite filters being placed on side streets, they provide benefits for boundary roads too.
But there are other measures needed to promote active travel routes along and across these roads.
1/ The active neighbourhood is about making trips on foot or cycling the easiest option. It’s not about making individual quiet streets.
This is why the way the project has been handled by MCC and talked about by councilors to date needs to change.
2/ Initially, the plan was to install 25 filters across Levenshulme, including other measures such as crossings. These would’ve turned different areas of Levenshulme into “no through traffic” zones, preventing rat running and prioritising active travel along these routes.
3/ However, the council made the poor decision to treat feedback on each individual filter as a referendum. They treated the filters as the aim of the scheme, rather than the low traffic routes they created.
We never saw the final raw data MCC used for these decisions.
Thanks to @jonburkeUK for giving a great talk at our inaugural S4P AGM. No better way to celebrate our birthday than listening to someone who’s walked the walk (literally!) when it comes to fighting for active travel measures.
2/ Our first birthday is a good job to reflect on what we've have achieved so far as a local community campaign group:
3/ We’ve held public meetings, allowing residents to ask questions about active travel both to each other and to their councillors despite not being able to meet in person, ensuring the council continues to communicate what they’re doing to reprioritise streetspace in the area.
We need more honesty in this consultation process.
The money for the active neighbourhood trials comes from the 'Mayor's Challange Fund', which is being used to implement a Greater Manchester-wide high quality walking and cycling network.
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The Fund is for the purpose of designing a Greater Manchester wide walking and cycling network which, when completed, will be one of the largest in the world.
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The GM Bee Network project, headed by @Chris_Boardman recognises that previous attempts to improve walking and cycyling through infrastructure has failed - it has not enabled the shift to walking and cycling from car use that it was supposed to. 3/-
Yesterday’s public meeting was a total embarrassment. There was no chairing. Council officers didn’t have answers to basic questions, despite such answers being readily available. Worst of all though, nobody from MCC was there to give a positive vision of what a low 1/2
traffic neighbourhood is for, and what it can achieve for people and the environment. It almost felt like this process has been forced on the council, but this is a council project which was set up by our local councillors @basat_m@bernardstone & @Dzidra78! 2/-
We say to @AngelikiStg, head of transport at MCC: We want this scheme to work, but if you don’t, it won’t. And failure will rest on your shoulders. Whatever the outcome, we will always be here campaigning for the essential changes we need to see. 3/-