Over £650,000 will be invested into walking and cycling in Macclesifeld, as part of the Department for Transport's £30m funding to launch Summer of Cycling & Walking.

Communities in Macclesfield are set to benefit from £650,793 investment from the government, which will be managed by Bristol-based walking and cycling charity Sustrans.

The funding will cover improvements to National Route 55 to help more people walk and cycle regular journeys.

This is a key active travel route between Macclesfield town centre and the northern suburbs of the town. It will include a road crossing on Middlewood Way and widening of a shared use path through a reallocation of road space.

The Department for Transport (DfT) announced funding for the Network totalling £30million as part of its 'Summer of Cycling and Walking' initiative. It will kick-start dozens of infrastructure improvement projects across the UK.

Andrew Ross, Cheshire East Council director of highways and infrastructure, said: "This is excellent news for Macclesfield and Cheshire East, where we are placing great emphasis on our policy to promote active travel, including walking and cycling.

"This is an important link along the Middlewood Way and, hopefully, will encourage more people to explore it on bikes as well as encouraging some workers to cycle to employment sites at Hurdsfield. It is a key element of our local cycling and walking infrastructure plan in Macclesfield.

"We are very much a cycling borough and seem to attract cycling enthusiasts from a wide area of the North West who follow the national cycle network when cycling for leisure purposes.

"But we also want to develop a borough-wide walking and cycling infrastructure that will encourage residents, who would not normally cycle, to leave the car at home and take up the option of a more sustainable and healthy form of travel.

"Investment in our cycling network can only help to boost our aspirations to get more people walking and cycling."

Rosslyn Colderley, Director for Sustrans in the North of England said: "This funding will bring major improvements to the National Cycle Network across Macclesfield by linking communities together and enhancing valued and well-used cycling and walking routes.

"Most importantly of all, this vital boost will further enable those who want to cycle, walk or wheel to do so."

A raft of upgrades will take place on existing paths and cycle routes to enhance cycleway connectivity, improve accessibility through the removal of barriers and to develop and increase the number of completely traffic-free sections of the network.

The announcement coincides with the DfT's introduction of the 2021/22 Capability Fund; a £30million revenue funding stream allocated to all local authorities in England, outside of London, to help them plan for good quality active travel infrastructure and to support behaviour change programmes.

The Fund is supported by a 'Moment of Change' guidance publication for local authorities, which enables them to support commuters to make active travel choices when returning to workplaces post-pandemic and is also released today under the Summer of Cycling and Walking banner.

Later in the year, Active Travel England will be set up as a dedicated body focused on ensuring inclusive design in town and city infrastructure, tipping the balance in favour of active forms of travel.

Rosslyn Colderley added: "The pandemic has highlighted the huge benefits of active forms of travel to people's personal health and wellbeing, to local communities and to the environment.

"We've seen a marked increase in numbers using the National Cycle Network and this commitment to funding underlines its importance.

"We welcome the Government's continued focus on cycling and walking. The time is right to ensure we're able to carry on working with our volunteers and other organisations in our role as a proud custodian of the network, to create and offer a safe, accessible and traffic-free travel environment for everyone's benefit."

During 2020, cycling and walking usage on the traffic-free portion of the National Cycle Network was up by 25%, when compared to 2019.

You can learn more about Sustrans here.

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