Clitheroe is a wonderful place to live and work, but its medieval roads network is becoming clogged with traffic. The town centre is a much busier and noisier place than it was even 20 years ago and many of the feeder roads are becoming very congested.
We believe that by working together with local businesses and community, we can make better use of the space in the town centre to prioritise places for people and create a more lively, vibrant and prosperous town centre.
Making it easier to walk, cycle and wheel has transformed historic town centres across the UK and the latest research demonstrates that prioritising places for people is positive for the local economy, too.
Healthier Streets
Active Travel has the potential to improve people’s health and wellbeing by making it easier for people to get active in their everyday lives.
By making it easier to walk or cycle, people can integrate exercise into their everyday routines, increasing their daily step counts by waling further and more frequently.
Making walking and cycling more widespread also has the potential to reduce traffic during the busy school run – allowing more children to walk or cycle to school – and further reducing traffic and improving air quality around schools.
Next steps
At this stage, we simply want to raise awareness and initiate a debate. We already have the support of the town team and we would like RVBC to join LCC in supporting our aspirations.
The most effective way of communicating the town’s readiness and willingness to embrace active travel is by establishing small scale pilot projects at little or no cost.
The simple ideas outlined above could be trialled with few financial implications and the outcomes recorded and residents consulted about the impacts – both positive and negative. Ideally, this will establish a solid platform from which to bid for active travel funding once if becomes available.
Ultimately, sustained progress toward lasting change will require substantial investment and we want to demonstrate to potential funders that there is positive community support for active travel and a set of deliverable ‘shovel-ready’ schemes in place.
Activate Clitheroe 