Cycling Plans for SE Chester Parishes

Map of South Chester Cycling Plan — Click Map Image to Expand

Developing the Plans

Several Chester Cycling Campaign members put in many hours of work developing a Cycling Plan for South East Chester.

Five Parish Councils in South East Chester, Great Boughton, Littleton, Christleton, Waverton and Huntington, have joined together with a view to reducing dependence on car travel in their area of Chester. This requires an improvement in public transport in conjunction with an increase in active travel, i.e. walking and cycling. But people are deterred from cycling by poor infrastructure, so a plan for improvement is needed. The Cycling Plan endeavours to give the Parish Councils an achievable means by which their community can become more cycle friendly.

The existing cycling infrastructure of each parish was mapped and required improvements were noted. We looked at existing cycle routes, including how usable they are at junctions, their condition including maintenance requirements, where new cycle routes are needed, existing cycle parking, where more cycle parking is needed and routes in, around and out of each parish.

Accessibility

Accessibility for those using non-standard cycles was taken into account, including the increased use of electric cycles, as Chester has seen a significant increase in sales over the last year. Out of this came recommendations for improvements, which were then co-ordinated between the five parishes to provide a coherent and robust plan.

The Plan covers shorter trips to access places of education, shops, workplaces, recreation etc. and also longer routes such as to schools in adjacent parishes and across the city, the city centre and the railway station. The emphasis is on essential routes rather than those for leisure purposes.

Each Parish has approved its own Plan and the overall Cycling Plan for South East Chester, which has now been submitted to Chester West and Chester Council. It was also sent to Sustrans to ensure that the proposals meet their much larger network objectives. Data collected have already been added to the Campaign’s Chester Cycle Map project. Since there are no proposals in the LCWIP for South East Chester, this Plan provides a robust plan to back future bids for funding.

Key Recommendations

Key recommendations include:

Christleton – A41 railway bridge-new pedestrian & cycle bridge
Littleton – Toucan crossing at A51/Hare Lane
Great Boughton – A5115 Christleton Road Segregated/Advisory Cycle Lanes each side
Huntington – Shared user path to Christleton
Waverton – Cycle parking