Walk. Ride. Thrive. - Let's regain West Cheshire's routes

Coinciding with Bike Week (6-14 June), Cheshire West and Chester Council is launching its Walk. Ride. Thrive campaign to encourage more people to enjoy a summer of active travel.

The borough has seen a dramatic fall in traffic volumes during the coronavirus pandemic, with walking and cycling playing an increasingly important role in more and more lives. Residents are getting more exercise, enjoying the outdoors and traffic congestion has almost been eliminated, whilst air pollution has significantly dropped.

The Government recently announced a package of funding to help keep people walking and cycling in a safe way during our recovery from the coronavirus crisis. Initiatives are already underway in the borough to make this happen.

Councillor Karen Shore, Cabinet Member for Environment, Highways and Strategic Transport said:

“It is great to see so many people choosing cycling and walking over cars, wherever possible, and we want to encourage this even further as we start entering the recovery phase. To continue using these active modes of transport and reducing congestion and air pollution on our roads will also support the ambition to be a carbon neutral borough.

“West Cheshire already has lots of green space and cycle routes for people to enjoy, but we also want to hear your views and suggestions about areas where more walking and cycling improvements can be made.  Residents can share their ideas on the interactive mapping tool or send suggestions via an online survey.

“We are hoping for short-term changes to be implemented over the next 4-8 weeks, as well as looking at medium to long-term changes across the borough to improve our walking and cycling infrastructure.”

The ‘Walk. Ride. Thrive.’ campaign was created by west Cheshire residents, who presented their ideas to local councillors and council staff.  ‘Good for Nothing’ is an organisation in Chester that promotes civic participation and the group arranged an online event for local people to take part and share creative ideas.  This is the start of an exciting initiative, where everyone across the borough can play their part and share ideas to see improvements within their communities.

Co-Founder of Good for Nothing, Holly Nelson added “Our events are all about bringing people together to discuss challenges and find solutions through collaboration and partnership –and what greater challenge, than supporting local communities to emerge from this current crisis.

“Last week our volunteers came up with a broad range of ideas for a summer of active travel where we live, and we really hope more people and organisations will adopt the ‘Walk. Ride. Thrive.’ mantra in their own communities across west Cheshire.

“We are really keen to encourage everyone to think about how they can support their local economy during the pandemic, whilst travelling sustainably and shopping locally. I would like to thank everyone who took part in the sessions we organised – as residents it has been really great to be able to truly collaborate with the Council, to share our ideas and contribute to the plans to create a stronger future together.”

Walk. Ride. Thrive is part of the Council’s ‘Stronger Futures’ initiative, seeking views and suggestions from residents on how communities can emerge from the pandemic even stronger than before.   

The Council want to hear resident views on the challenges they face when walking and cycling in their local area and how improvements can be made.

There are a number of ways to get involved and share your ideas: 

• Visit www.cheshirewestandchester.gov.uk/walkridethrive

• Tweet @Go_CheshireWest using #WalkRideThrive

• Send a letter to: Stronger Futures: Cycling and Walking, Insight and Intelligence, Cheshire West and Chester Council, Council Offices, 4 Civic Way, Ellesmere Port, CH65 0BE

• Email your ideas to transportstrategy@cheshirewestandchester.gov.uk

• Telephone the Council’s Contact Centre on: 0300 123 8 123, quoting 'Focusing on Cycling and Walking’