Louise Haigh, the transport secretary (Picture: Department for Transport)

Last month closed with news that walking and cycling is to get a funding boost. 

While Boris Johnson and Grant Shapps, his transport secretary, dreamt big about active travel before the pandemic, Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt let the air out of our tyres.

What was even more painful is that the PM and chancellor seemed to delight in it.

Now the Labour government is reported to be about to increase money for walking and cycling and – as important – deliver consistent funding that will enable councils to plan what they do.

Expect more details to emerge between now and the beginning of November (the budget is on October 30).

Meanwhile read what the Guardian had to say: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/aug/20/labour-investment-cycling-walking-unprecedented-louise-haigh

Your campaign team is about to buckle down to writing an official response to the new Essex Transport Strategy, which will set priorities for the next few years.

If you would like to play a part in the campaign effort, do get in touch. We work on Google Docs, and it is easy to see what we say and comment.

Whether you want to be involved or not, you can still register your interest as an individual.

See https://www.essexhighways.org/news/public-invited-to-shape-upcoming-transport-strategy-for-essex

The deadline is three weeks away – Sunday, September 22.

It's great to see that work has started on repairs next to the Rowhedge Trail, where a quay collapse shut the path for several months.

Let's hope we see similar movement soon on the Middlemill bridge (Essex and Colchester councils) and the Boxted Mill bridge (Essex – and closed for a year so far). There's also the closed tram bridge at the Hythe where pedestrians have to walk in the road.

Making the Rowhedge Trail better for cyclists is a long-term cycling campaign ambition. While it is rideable now (quay works permitting!) there are two stiles to lug your bike over that we would like to see replaced with bike-friendly veeroosters (Dutch bike-friendly cattle grids).

That said, it is a pretty route connecting Rowhedge (and Future Bikes!) to the Hythe whether you walk or wheel. If anyone wants to step up the campaign to secure this path for the future, please volunteer.

The campaign is trying to assess the state of play with plans to replace this roundabout on the Via Urbis Romanae (or as the taxi drivers call it, "the road with the poncey soundin' foreign name") with a signalised junction.

We first saw the drawings in 2020, coincidentally when LTN 1/20 was unveiled, and immediately called for the design to comply with the new cycling and walking infrastructure guide.

Twelve months later we saw a "new design" with hardly any changes and pedestrians having to cross seven lanes of traffic in three stages on the northern arm. We wrote then that "Colchester is not America!". Other arms feature two-stage crossings which are discouraged by Active Travel England.

For a change, we can't blame Essex County Council. The scheme is coming forward as part of a planning permission granted by the city council.

Will Bramhill, campaign secretary, has pointed out that in future this is likely to be a route for children coming from Langham and Boxted to the Gilberd School.

He said: "I do hope that when we next see the plans there are changes that help cyclists and pedestrians. The cinema, bowling alley and restaurants at Northern Gateway will attract significant clientele. Colchester must do its utmost to make sure they do not all come by car."
 
The campaign has asked council leader David King to put the scheme to Active Travel England to get their "design assurance".

It seems that the campaign has lost the argument over the design of a new crossing to replace the zebra at the Greenstead roundabout end of Clingoe Hill.

Essex has advanced a scheme to give priority to the Colchester Glider, the planned rapid transit bus service, but this involves replacing the current zebra with a two-stage cycle and pedestrian crossing. 

The problem is that this will be the main route from the proposed garden community to the rest of the city. In our view this should be a one-stage crossing that is able to handle at least ten cyclists per phase of the lights. This would attract more people to utility cycling and help the city achieve the modal change needed to avoid everything slowing to a crawl.

We have been told that the new crossing cannot be next to the roundabout like the old zebra (because, er, rules), and at the new location the height difference between the lanes is too great to allow one stage (it could also hamper motor traffic throughput).

Campaign leaders have argued the case as hard as we can. We even called on Active Travel England for its view. The only concession made by Essex is to widen the central reserve to allow bikes and pedestrians to pass each other. Work is due to start in the next two weeks.

• Essex will be starting work this month on the new A1331 road which will link the A133 at Essex University with the A120 at Bromley. See https://www.essexhighways.org/a120-a133-link-and-rapid-transit

Ground investigation works will also start at St Botolph's, Colchester: https://www.essexhighways.org/news/3/st-botolphs-ground-investigation-and-survey-works (see the fly through for this scheme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmfWZwmvwXc)

A consultation on walking and cycling networks in Harwich and Dovercourt, Clacton and Jaywick continues until October 13. https://www.essexhighways.org/news/13/have-your-say-on-walking-and-cycling-networks-in-essex

Meanwhile on the Northern Approaches in Colchester, pictured below, the drainage works are complete and suddenly we can see progress. The dumper truck in the picture is on the new two-way bus lane while the concrete edges for the new cycleway and separate footway have been laid, centre right. We'll try to bring you a new picture next month.

Iron Latch Lane runs from Stanway to Eight Ash Green into Iron Latch Wood, part of which is already a nature reserve. The lane is used informally by leisure and some utility cyclists. 

Colchester City Council has recently acquired part of the woods west of the lane and is consulting on its future use "for people and nature".

Here is the campaign response. Note that the shared path beside Halstead Road was "won" by the campaign as part of the "Butterfly Estate" planning permission about ten years ago.

If this is your part of town and you would like to help campaign on this particular scheme, please get in touch.

NB, the "bike park" on the Google hmap appears to be an informal mountain bike track put in place by locals. As far as we understand it has no official or commercial status.

As good as his word, David King, the Colchester City Council leader, appears to have put a stop to cyclists being fined unfairly and the emphasis is still on "educate don't fine".

We hear down the brake cable, though, that Phin Wenlock of Colchester Bike Kitchen has played his part in educating the wardens.

After a CBK volunteer was stopped and told they shouldn't be riding in Culver Street West, where cycling is allowed, Phin wrote to the city council to put them right.

We trust the message has been passed on!

We are about to set a date to meet David and his team to discuss how cycling and Public Spaces Protection Orders work together in the hope of influencing the next PSPO orders in Colchester.

Essex Pedal Power marked its first anniversary in August. The group hides its light under a bushel somewhat: we've badgered them for a feature for a couple of months but nothing has been forthcoming. 

By 2025 EPP will have provided 5,000 free bikes to residents in disadvantaged communities, which include Greenstead in Colchester and Jaywick. The aim is to provide more people with access to employment, training and education.

The multi-agency programme delivers on various agendas and outcomes. EPP said: "Friendships have formed, communities have strengthened and the project has become so much more than just a free bike scheme."

It really is great to see a cycling scheme working so well for everyone. Congratulations to all involved.

Find out more: https://www.activeessex.org/essex-pedal-power/essex-pedal-power-colchester/

Watch the campaign's Stuart Johnson make the case for safer walking and cycling at last month's city council environmental and sustainability panel. Thanks Stuart! https://www.youtube.com/live/IDRJOoXyvr0?t=1112s

If anyone else would like to take a bigger role in campaigning, get in touch. Current campaign leaders are more than happy to pass on their skills in public speaking and media appearances – which always looks good on your CV.

Alan Palmer Way is now fully open next to the railway line north of the former Cowdray Centre. The cycleway was part of the planning permission for the Castellum Grange development of homes on the site. It predates LTN 1/20 which is why it's shared use

See the map below for the location. The blue dots mark the new section. Cyclists from Mason Road previously had to ride along Leete Drive.

An associated scheme that will be coming forward soon is the widening of the current path west of the trackside tunnel to link in with Brick Kiln Lane. John Collett, CCC and Civic Trust member, has the bit between his teeth. We also hope to see Network Rail straighten the path into the tunnel but this is a long, long, long process. 

Look closely at this snap of a busy Colchester High Street and you will see a couple of women pushing their cycles next to the footway. Their bikes have big front baskets which are no doubt full of groceries for a family teatime.

Elsewhere horses and traps carry what look like milk churns to shops and restaurants, and a dog decides to take objection to the presence of a tram.

Shop names include Loomes and Owen Ward, which was a men's outfitter that lasted almost to the turn of the millennium.

The tramways were in use from 1904 to 1929 when the shortsighted decision was made to give precedence to the new-fangled motor car. More on Colchester trams here.

Have you signed the Colchester Cycling Charter yet? If not, please do. If you work or volunteer, please ask your organisation to sign too. The more people on bikes, the fewer traffic jams will snarl up our city.

Feel free to pass on this newsletter via email and social media by using the link at the very top ... and encourage your friends to join the campaign so they receive their own copy every month.

Chairman: Stuart Johnson
Secretary: Will Bramhill
Treasurer: Catherine Johnson
Your committee: Alex Hooper, Chris Stevenson, Jean Quinn, Nathaniel Catchpole, Alan Spence and Paul Byrne