An extra £1.1m worth of funding from Active Travel England, Active Travel Fund 4, for Cambridgeshire will be discussed next week at the Highways and Transport Committee (Tuesday, 23 July).

A bid made by the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority for more schemes under the Active Travel Fund 4 extension was successful and if agreed at the Highways and Transport Committee, will see a further three schemes developed and delivered.

The schemes that will be discussed are:

• Alconbury Weald to Huntingdon Station – part of the Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plan and will see the existing shared use path widened. There was funding secured in the last round, but this will allow the completion of the design between Alconbury and Huntingdon Business Park and the preliminary design between the Business Park and the railway station.
• Brampton to Hinchingbrooke – part of the Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plan, this will allow the development of a feasibility study to improve active travel routes at the Thrapston Road/Huntingdon Road/Church Road roundabout and will connect to the Buckden to Brampton scheme which was delivered last year.
• Whittlesford to Duxford Road – part of the Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plan, the current footpath is narrow and in poor condition. This funding will allow for a new shared use path along Duxford Road, connecting villages to the railway station and secondary school, to be built. Further local engagement is planned prior to construction this Autumn.

If approved, these new schemes will increase active travel trips to schools and the station and provide short journeys by walking, wheeling or cycling from surrounding villages.

Cllr Alex Beckett, chair of Cambridgeshire County Council’s Highways and Transport Committee, said: “This extra funding will help us to deliver more active travel schemes across the county. This is on top of the 16 schemes we have delivered through Active Travel England funding to date.

“Active travel is one of our top priorities and is an integral part of our vision to ‘create a greener, fairer and more caring Cambridgeshire’. We want to make Active Travel the ‘go to’ option for local journeys which would make travel across the county to be safer and more sustainable environmentally – which is part of our ambitions. Active travel is at the heart of achieving this. By giving people options and enabling them to leave the car at home we can all feel the benefits of safer streets, more interactive communities, cleaner air and better health.”

Earlier this year, as part of the Active Travel Fund 4, Cambridgeshire County Council received £910,000 of this fund towards construction and development of five Active Travel schemes – Buckden Road, Girton to Eddington, Godmanchester to Huntingdon town bridge, Huntingdon to Alconbury Weald and A505 to Granta Park.

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