Plans to improve cycling facilities outside Wokingham town centre and linking Earley and Woodley to Reading are being drawn up. It comes after Wokingham Borough Council was awarded £576,650 towards improvements to cycling and walking facilities in these areas by the Department for Transport.
Earlier this year WBC bid for the funding as part of the Government’s Emergency Active Travel Fund, with these three areas selected as potential projects. They have been earmarked for new cycling infrastructure as they link up with the existing cycle network in the borough and/or other areas on the edge of the borough.
The potential projects the council wants residents’ views on are:
- Earley/Reading active travel route (scheme one) – A4 London Road and potential link to Thames Valley Park/Reading Borough boundary
- Woodley/Reading active travel route (scheme two) – Woodley town centre, Woodlands Avenue, Church Road, Culver Lane/Anderson Avenue to the Reading Borough boundary
- Wokingham town centre/A329 London Road active travel route (scheme three) – A329 London Road, Seaford Road, Goodchild Road/Wescott Road, Easthampstead Road, Denton Road, Luckley Path
WBC have been awarded 95 per cent of the funding it applied for and is aiming to start work on one of these projects as soon as it can. The consultation with residents on the principle of these facilities runs until 26th March.
“We want to make cycling easier in our borough without disrupting other road and footpath users,” said Cllr Pauline Jorgensen, executive member for Highways and Transport. “Designs are being drawn up for potential infrastructure to do just that on routes into Wokingham town and linking Woodley and Earley to Reading. The locations where these schemes are proposed link up well with existing cycling infrastructure but we want to hear residents’ views on this. We believe improvements at any of these locations would allow us to provide high quality segregated routes, making it safer to cycle and encouraging even more residents to get on their bikes.”
Detailed plans on the projects WBC are looking at will be consulted on later this year. Although these projects may not all be delivered straight away, WBC are gathering feedback on them now as they look to fund future projects to improve the borough’s cycling facilities.
The council will publish the consultation feedback summary later in the spring and show how it has informed the detailed design of these projects. Further updates will be provided later this year on which project will be built and when this will happen.
