A number of people have asked me why I didn't vote for the Active Travel Strategy at this month's Cheshire East Council meeting.

The answer is simple - we need a strategy that actually promotes, enables and encourages cycling, walking and wheeling as viable alternatives to the car, not just another tick-box exercise that will never see the light of day.

Our existing Active Travel plan comprises 'Local Cycling and Walking Improvement Plans' (LCWIPs) for the major towns in Cheshire East.

All well and good - unfortunately, there's little evidence of them on the ground.

Macclesfield's LCWIP consists partly of routes mainly along busy main roads or up steep cobbled streets, with the rest as random lines drawn on the map.

The only measure that has been put into practice is the junction improvements where the Middlewood Way crosses Hibel Road at Black Lane - mostly paid for by outside bodies - here, road markings are already fading, while the Middlewood Way itself is becoming badly overgrown just yards away.

Councillor Knight with Active Travel campaigners (Credit: Supplied)

At the same time, the National Cycle Network - an established network of routes within and between towns and villages throughout the UK - has been allowed to 'wither on the vine' in Macclesfield.

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Yet, when I proposed using some of my Ward Member Budget (a sum available to councillors for highway improvements in the ward they represent) to restore this route through central Macclesfield, this was refused on the grounds that it didn't fall within the LCWIP - for which there was no money available anyway.

The new Active Travel Strategy proposes more of the same for other communities in Cheshire East - but still with no funding allocated.

We need an integrated network of safe routes for walking, wheeling and cycling in Cheshire East, not exercises in wishful thinking hiding the council's failure to provide any meaningful provision for Active Travel.

At the very least, let's take the existing plans off the shelves where they're gathering dust and put them into practice before we start devising new ones.

Councillor John Knight - Cheshire East Green Party

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