Norfolk County Council has opened a public consultation on a draft walking, wheeling and cycling strategy for the county.

The strategy is an updated version of the previous walking and cycling strategy which was published in 2017. Since then, there has been a step change in national and local policy which has placed walking, wheeling and cycling at the heart of decision making.

The proposed new strategy brings together Norfolk’s local transport, environmental and public health ambitions and aims to make walking, wheeling or cycling the natural choice for both travelling from A to B and for leisure.

The draft strategy has been created following policy reviews, evidence collation and engagement with district councils and Active Norfolk. Now the county council wants to hear from residents, stakeholders and organisations to get their thoughts on the proposed strategy.

Graham Plant, cabinet member for highways, infrastructure and transport said: “Our draft strategy supports the Government’s ambition for walking, wheeling and cycling to be the natural first choice for many journeys. We want to support the growing population in Norfolk to choose sustainable transport whenever possible. This will help create and support healthy communities, enable our transport network to run effectively, emit fewer harmful emissions, and help protect our environment as much as we can.”

The scale and pace of delivering the strategy will be dependent on the level of funding the County Council can secure. Having this strategy alongside our already approved local cycling and walking infrastructure plans for Norfolk helps us to present our ambition to central Government and give us more likelihood of securing funding in the future.

The consultation is available online and will be open until Friday 24 November.