Councillor secures action pledge to link up Peterborough's cycleways

Plans are being devised to link up Peterborough’s cycleways through the city centre, councillors have been told.

The assurance was given by Councillor Marco Cereste, cabinet member for transport, in response to concerns that cyclists travelling from around the city had to dismount to get through the centre because bicycle routes did not join up.

Anxiety has also been voiced at new data showing the numbers of cyclists in the city is falling.

But Cllr Cereste told members at a full meeting of Peterborough City Council: “We are developing options that will improve walking and cycling connections in the city centre, for example, to our new university, and these improvements will require significant engineering works.

“They will be expensive to construct.

“However, it is important we put ourselves in the best possible position for future funding.

“So, I would support the improvements to the university going into our local cycling and walking infrastructure plan.

“The growth in that part of the city now gives us the economic benefits needed to seek external funding for these improvements.”

He added: “Increasing the number of people walking and cycling is a priority for this council because of course, it has so many other positive benefits, such as improving people's health and wellbeing, as well as reducing of course our carbon emissions.”

Worries about the lack of connections in the city centre to link up cycleways from the outskirts of Peterborough had been expressed by Cllr Heather Skibsted.

She had warned: “So far the Local Council Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plan (LCWIP) has no mention of linking cycling routes between the north and south and east and west of the city to enable cyclists to cycle freely and safely across the city centre.

“It is not acceptable or practical to expect cyclists to ‘get off and walk’ for large parts of their journeys and this will not encourage more cycling.

She added: “ Data from the Department of Transport shows cycling is reducing in Peterborough so it's clear we need to change at an unprecedented level. Yet progress on this has been slow.”

She said the council needed to prioritise to ensure cycling across the city becomes a safe alternative.