What else is in county council's bid for Government funding now Northampton Billing Road plan has been scrapped?

Last week, the county council announced it had scrapped a controversial proposal to convert Northampton's Billing Road into a one-way street and a mile-long segregated cycle route.

But much of the money for the proposal was set to come from a Government fund set up to make travel safer following the Covid-19 outbreak, which the council had to bid for.

The council's bid could have received up to £1.4m through the Emergency Active Travel Fund. But as of last week, cabinet member Jason Smithers confirmed he had contacted the Department for Transport to remove the proposal for the one-way street from their bid.

Instead, the councillor said they would seek to submit a new proposal to encourage cycling on Billing Road, Wellingborough Road, Abington Park Crescent and Park Avenue South.

Meanwhile, there were three other proposals on the council's bid for the £1.4m.

The other three schemes are:

£1m 'Quick Win' Package: The council's bid claims the now-scrapped Billing Road scheme and the three other proposals were all reportedly "areas of priority" on a series of 'Local Cycling and Walking Investment Plans' [LCWIP] which were commissioned for Northampton and Rushen/Higham Ferrers, as well as a third for the A4500.

The council say they would use the Government money for 'quick wins' inside these three areas of interest. These include:

- Two new toucan crossings and shared use cycle/footpath on Kettering Road, Northampton between Spinney Hill Road and Highlands Avenue

- New shared use path between St Peter’s Way and Bridge St in Northampton

- New shared use path along Northampton Road and Wellingborough Road filling gap in existing provision between Rushden Lakes and Rushden town centre.

£1.1m cycle scheme for Cottingham Road, Corby: This scheme would replace the "sub-standard" shared use pedestrian and cycle facilities on the Corby A-Road and build a permanent on-road segregated cycle lane in each direction.£0.375m 'Monitoring, evaluation and Discovery': The last project claims it would use the money to use technology and assess "what is working, what is not, and why and how interventions can be improved". It is similar to how when the emergency funding was first announced, the council was handed an initial £351,000 and used £75,000 of it to install digital cycle counters on Kettering Road and Harlestone Road. The newest bid will reportedly include:

- Four digital cycle counters on Billing Road, Cottingham Road and Rushmere Road

- Dashboard displays showing live cycle counts.

- Digitisation of cycle information

- 'Data sharing and discovery agreement' with University of Northampton.

The Billing Road scheme was expected to cost £1.4m. If the Government had provided the full potential £1.4m, this would not have been used entirely to pay for the scheme but used to fund all four projects in part.

In the announcement last week that the Billing Road scheme would be scrapped, councillor Jason Smithers said: “In reviewing all the correspondence from residents, we have noted that - whilst residents are against a one-way system on Billing Road - they are supportive of cycling as an enjoyable, healthy and sustainable activity.

"We will continue to work with DfT to submit an alternative proposal that encourages cycling along Billing Road, Wellingborough Road, Abington Park Crescent and Park Avenue South. Should we receive funding for this proposal, we will complete a full design and publicly consult on a range of options before making a final decision about any scheme design.”