£1.4m plan to turn Northampton's Billing Road into a one-way street to create 2.5 mile-long cycle system revealed

A major road in Northampton could be redesigned into a one-way street in a bid to create a mile-long two-way cycling route.

The county council has asked the Government for £1.392m for a large-scale scheme plan to create 2.5miles of segregated cycle lanes.

Billing Road runs for over a mile between York Road and Rushmere Road and has access to Northampton General Hospital, St Andrew's Hospital and Northampton School for Boys, as well as more than a hundred homes and businesses.

Now, the Chronicle & Echo can reveal the county council has applied for £1.392m from the Government to refashion the entire road into a one-way street heading westbound towards the town centre.

Meanwhile, the second lane of the mile-long road would be segregated off using traffic wands and turned into a two-way cycle route.

Alongside this, permanent on-road cycle lanes would be created on nearby Park Avenue South, Abington Park Crescent and a the section of Wellingborough Road west of the Trumpet pub.

Altogether, it would create a linked cycle route approximately two-and-a-half miles long.

It means eastbound traffic and buses would need to travel on other routes.

The council has applied for the funding as part of the second tranche of the Emergency Active Travel Fund, which is a Government scheme to help councils pay for projects that encourage cycling and walking in support of social distancing.

The bid to the Government can now be revealed following an Freedom of Information request by the Chron.

The application reads: "There is already moderate levels of cycling on the Billing Road, but the existing cycle lanes are viewed as poor.

"This will significantly increase the attractiveness of cycling as an option for two Primary Schools immediately adjacent to this route.

"The focus of this bold and ambitious scheme is the provision of a high quality cycling route into Northampton town centre."

It comes after nearby Rushmere Road was last week fitted with traffic wands along the southbound side to create a segregated cycle lane. The wands have been met with criticism from homeowners.

It comes as the county council is also asking for residents' views on a 60-page consultation aimed at redesigning Northampton's major roads to become a "leading cycling and walking town", including an outline for the Billing Road scheme.