It is encouraging to see Climate Change at the top of the list of objectives in this plan, and that securing radical reductions in carbon emissions” is a key objective. It also states the council will “prioritise sustainable travel as an attractive option across West Northamptonshire by maximising and promoting the use of alternative travel modes.” (Objective 9).
We completely support these statements, but it’s important to point out that this requires a complete turnaround on current practice.
The plan says we will reduce carbon emissions and make walking, cycling and public transport the most natural first choices. Let’s look at how this aim compares with what’s happening now.
Recent council actions include:
- The council abandoned their proposed active travel route along Billing Road in 2020 before the consultation was completed. (the scheme was to use the £1.3m Tranche 2 of the Emergency Active Travel Fund, which has still not been spent).
- There have been repeated delays in the Abington Active Travel Scheme (which replaced the Billing Road scheme) – it’s now 4 years since the funding was received and 12 months since the close of the consultation.
- The council has borrowed £20m to contribute to a £56m new road, but has still not created or even planned a single active travel route into the town centre.
- The council created an additional traffic lane in Cliftonville Road which makes cycling there even more hazardous, and with no improvements to the poor pavement surfaces.
- The council still has no Local Cycling and Walking Plan for Northampton, first started in 2018.
- The council has still not published the results of their own 2021 active travel survey, which showed that most Northampton residents want more priority to be given to walking and cycling in our streets.
In addition the council’s roads have the following longstanding issues that urgently need to be addressed if objective 9 is to be met:
- Pavement parking and parking across ramps at junctions make it difficult or impossible to walk children to school, especially when there’s a baby in the family that’s using a buggy. And wheelchair users are forced to use the road.
- Many of our junctions have no crossing facility at all for pedestrians, even when there are traffic lights for cars (eg Broadmead Ave/Park Ave, Claire St/Kettering Rd).
- Many junctions that do cater for pedestrians are divided into two or three stages, while cars go across in one stage – ie clearly prioritising cars, not cycling or walking (eg Abington Sq, Morrisons entrance Kettering Rd).
- Many of Northampton’s pavements are so poorly surfaced that wheelchair users are forced to use the road.
- Many of Northampton’s walking and cycling routes have barriers do not adhere to accessibility standards, making them difficult or impossible to use by wheelchair and mobility scooter users.
- On many of Northampton’s cycle and walking paths there is a complete lack of regular maintenance such as pushing back encroaching edges, cutting back trees & shrubs, and clearing leaves and debris.
Living Streets Northampton 