4 Local Authority Engagement

As the CycleConnects cycle network has a larger area than the GDA and consists of 22 local authorities, consultation with these was important to ensure alignment with local policies. As this was a desk-based study it was also important to gain local knowledge from the County Councils regarding the conditions of local infrastructure.

This included sharing draft CycleConnects plans with each county for their review. An interactive GIS map was shared with the Local Authorities to allow for their input on the development on the design of the cycle networks. This is similar to what was done as part of the development of the GDA cycle network.

County Council Workshops

Workshops were undertaken with the local authorities in all the 22 counties between March and July 2022. This also included attendees from the NTA. All of these workshops took place remotely with MS Teams used to allow several people from different locations to attend.

During these workshops, both the county and urban networks were discussed. Any proposals to amend or add additional routes were marked up and the plans subsequently revised. Where necessary, additional workshops were undertaken to discuss urban areas or particular parts of the county in more detail.

It was also noted during these workshops that some urban areas would be subject to an Area Based Transport Assessment (ABTA) in the near future. Thus, it was noted that both CycleConnects and the ABTA proposals would need to align. Some meetings have already take place with the project teams working on these ABTAs to ensure there is no misalignment between different proposed cycle routes.

Weekly meetings with TII NCN team

AECOM has also worked on the development of the TII National Cycle Network (NCN) and the NTA CycleConnects cycle network. To ensure that both the TII National Cycle Network and NTA CycleConnects are aligned, weekly update meetings between both teams were held. This also allowed information to be shared between both teams and the development of both route plans to be reviewed on a regular basis.