Sustrans presents key partners with ’10 000 miles Awards’

This month sees completion of the first 10 000 miles of the National Cycle Network, a task that has taken ten years for Sustrans to achieve. To highlight those instrumental in creating and maintaining the Network, the sustainable transport charity is presenting key partners and individuals with thank-you awards.

The National Cycle Network was launched in 1995 following a grant of £43.5m from the Millennium Commission.

Last year the Network carried over 201 million walking and cycling trips.

The ’10 000 miles Awards’ will be presented by astronomer and broadcaster, Heather Couper, at a dinner at Churchill College, Cambridge on Sunday.

John Grimshaw, Sustrans’ CEO said: “The choices and decisions have been difficult. There were dozens of contenders in many of the categories, and so the award winners, outstanding as they are, are representative of a much wider effort.

“Looking to the next ten years, our job at Sustrans is to change the way people move. As the impact of climate change is felt more widely, and petrol prices continue to rise, we will all be travelling far less and over much shorter distances. Walking and cycling will become an everyday part of life.

“The National Cycle Network is a catalyst for change. We would like to double the amount of Network, and bring it within a mile of most of the population in the UK, with usage more than trebling. We want to see government, local and national, take cycling and walking seriously. For the Network to continue succeeding it needs to be integral to all transport planning and funding.”

On 12th September, many of the award winners will attend a transport, health and climate change conference in Cambridge called ‘Driven to extinction?’. Organised by Sustrans, and chaired by Channel 4 newscaster Jon Snow, the conference will look at how transport policy can “change the world,” said Sustrans.

AWARDS

Routing

Urban area
Winners: Belfast City Council, Newtownabbey Borough Council, Lisburn City Council, Road Service of
Northern Ireland, Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure, Laganside Development Corporation

Route: Belfast: Jordanstown to Lisburn – centred on a wholesale renewal of the Lagan river frontage, extensive reclamation along the coast of Belfast Lough, and a beautiful reconstruction of the Lagan towpath to Lisburn.

Town and surrounding areas
Winners: Didcot Town Council, Oxfordshire County Council, South Oxfordshire District Council
Routes in all directions linking Didcot to nearly all its surrounding settlements, often by excellent traffic-free paths.

Links to Schools
Winners: Essex County Council and Writtle College
Route: Writtle College made the whole route possible by allowing construction of key sections on college grounds creating local links as well as a direct route to Chelmsford town centre.

Developers’s infrastructure
Winners: Cork Toft Partnership, Redrow Homes and Barratt Homes
Route: Buckshaw village, between Leyland and Chorley, is the largest brownfield development in the North West on a former munitions works, and took into account the needs of cyclists and walkers right at the start of the programme.

Inspired countryside routes
Winner: Devon County Council
The Council has completed a network of routes throughout the country, including the Tarka Trails and the memorable Granite Way around the western edge of Dartmoor from Okehampton to Lydford.

Construction and Design
Winner: Kingston upon Hull City Council, Conwy Borough Council and Suffolk County Council
Kingston upon Hull has a reputation for slow speeds and continuous cycling routes, a great example being the route to Hessle. Conwy have been an inspiration in forging National Route 5 along its whole coastline. Suffolk County Council is a shining exception to the failure of most local authorities to provide truly flush kerbs at the junction of road, and path – a small, but frustrating detail, of cyclists’s journeys.

Bridges and underpasses
Winner: Lancaster City Council
The Millennium Bridge at Lancaster shines because it unites Lancaster and Morecambe, long divided by congestion and heavy traffic on the Greyhound Bridge and because of its elegant bifurcation to reach two levels and two destinations on the south side of the river.

Trunk road details
Winner: The Scottish Executive
The Drumochter Pass was our greatest single challenge requiring a new route nearly 20 miles long to avoid the A9 from Dalnacardoch Lodge to Dalwhinnie. The endeavour, which includes 52 bridges, is all the more remarkable because of the relative remoteness of the area, and the distance between settlements.

Greenways
Winner: Kirklees Metropolitan Borough Council
The Spen Valley Greenway through Heckmondwike, Liversedge and Cleckheaton has been an extraordinary success, with numerous links, excellent landscaping and an exciting public arts programme making it immensely popular and the catalyst for work

http://www.sustrans.co.uk