Council funding is helping Active Travel Revolution reduce congestion in Market Harborough. Bob Bellm and Leila Wilson ✍️
Leila and Bob are members of Active Travel Revolution, a group aiming to increase active and sustainable travel in Market Harborough. Through the council’s Legacy Grant fund, they are collecting information on how people travel to and from local schools, and which initiatives can help reduce solo car journeys to make Market Harborough less congested.
As members of their local Neighbourhood Forums, they have front row seats to the concerns of residents.
Bob: A lot of feedback we've been getting through the Neighbourhood Forums has been about the amount of traffic. The town has expanded exponentially over the last 15 years and inevitably traffic is much worse. We decided that the best place to start was with schools, because the school run creates some very visible congestion. Could we do something about that?
Leila: I don’t let my primary school age daughter walk on her own to school because I’m not convinced it’s safe. Mainly because of cars parked on pavements.
Bob: There are around two thousand secondary school students and another two thousand primary school pupils – even a relatively small proportion of parents driving to school makes a huge difference.
Leila: The Active Travel Revolution perspective is about gaining in-depth information and eventually preparing a travel plan for each school. We're just launching a comprehensive survey, and the whole programme is going to be data-led, which is really important.
Leila: We met with the Choose How You Move team and a number of our County Councillors and District Councillors. One of the outcomes was an offer from the team to give us the grant, which recognised the value we could bring as a community.
We're building relationships with stakeholders, the schools, and we are linking up with other agencies. We're trying to ensure a co-ordinated approach to any initiatives or incentives that are being brought out, such as the WOW Tracker app.
The schools that we've engaged with, they want to help. And the level of enthusiasm from the students has been really inspiring. I think it's really motivating. Lots of bright young kids with good ideas.
Bob: It’s a real team effort because there are lots of different stakeholders involved. The Choose How You Move team do lots of fantastic work and the Leicestershire School Sports Partnership, Harborough District Council and even the police have a role to play.
But I think the beauty of this project is that it’s community led. There's so much that we can do ourselves. We want to encourage cycling, walking and wheeling for short trips, but our aim is to make it easier, safer and, healthier for all parents and children, no matter how they travel.
Find out more about cycling, walking and wheeling in your area at choosehowyoumove.co.uk.
