Halifax Road (A629) New planning application, we object!
We have objected to this new planning application for Halifax Road – for improvement and widening of the A629). It does not include provision for dedicated cycling paths or alternatives. In part, that was meant to be provided by Phase 4 – but this has been sidelined indefinitely.
We cannot support this scheme until it is either redesigned to incorporate cycling, or Phase 4 is completed in line with the government guidelines (in LTN 1/20).
Although the A629 Halifax Road is arguably a strategic traffic route, it is evidently used for many local, shorter car journeys too and for this reason needs to be consider in conjunction with measures in the surrounding residential and employment areas to encourage ‘active travel’.
The primary objective of these walking, wheeling and cycling improvements needs to be modal shift for shorter Huddersfield to Huddersfield journeys. These are the most likely journeys to be undertaken on these ‘alternative’ routes – not journeys between Huddersfield and Halifax, which will be for the more experienced regular everyday cyclists only, due to distance and topography.
We have reminded Kirklees Council (a highly rated authority by the government agency Active Travel England) that all major road schemes now must include LTN 1/20 standard cycling:
To receive Government funding for local highways investment where the main element is not cycling or walking, there will be a presumption that schemes must deliver or improve cycling infrastructure to the standards in this Local Transport Note, unless it can be shown that there is little or no need for cycling in the particular highway scheme.
We also discuss the Phase 5 proposals which we believe needs to incorporate some reallocation of road space to permit a dedicated cycle path on the outward side.