Sutton set to benefit from £500K of cycle route improvements while Mansfield could miss out

Nottinghamshire County Council’s transport and environment committee will discuss the proposals next week, using more than £2 million in Government funding to roll out the plans.

Cycle and footways are often paths either segregated or combined to give the right of way for cyclists and pedestrians to use paths.

In some cases they are split in the middle, giving space on either side for cyclists and pedestrians, however, in other cases they are one path.

The funding comes as part of the second phase of the Government’s Active Travel Fund (ATF), with consultation and feasibility studies conducted on streets across the district.

Five roads were initially identified for the bid, spread across Mansfield, Ashfield, Rushcliffe, Bassetlaw and Broxtowe.

The authority looked into a segregated cycleway on Chesterfield Road South, Mansfield, but design work found the scheme “cannot be delivered within the total budget available”.

This, council documents say, is due to the extensive work required to move utilities in the area. The council will continue with design work in the hope sufficient funding becomes available in the future.

The remaining four areas identified under the consultation have been selected for the ATF tranche two funding.

High Pavement, in Sutton, is also earmarked for a cycleway and footway at an estimated cost of £535,000.

The documents say: “Following consideration of the outcome of the first round of consultation, at its June 2021 meeting, the Transport and Environment Committee determined the next steps for each of the schemes still under consideration, in order to inform which of the schemes should progress to construction.

“This work, which involved further feasibility and design work and consultation on five schemes, has now been completed.

“The proposed package of measures includes only those schemes that were considered to fully meet the requirements set out in this tranche of ATF.”

All four of the projects viewed as financially viable are recommended for approval at the transport and environment committee on Wednesday (October 13)