£3 million for active travel schemes in Bridgend county borough

Bridgend County Borough Council has received a £3 million grant from Welsh Government for active travel routes.

The funding includes almost £2.6 million for a package of improvements along the planned active travel route between Bridgend and Pencoed College. It also involves just over £450,000 for the council to take forward initial surveys and preliminary designs of sections of the active travel network for the future, as well as £220,000 for the development of safe routes in Coity Higher.

The grant will enable:

• an off-road route suitable for use by pedestrians and cyclists to be created along Felindre Road in Pencoed from the proposed signalised junction between Coychurch Road and Felindre Road to the existing crossing point on the A473 north of Felindre Road roundabout
• an upgrade of the existing pelican crossing point on the A473 to cater for cyclists
• a new off-road route suitable for use by pedestrians and cyclists between the existing crossing point on the A473, north of Felindre Road roundabout, and the existing shared-use facility on Felindre Road near the cemetery. This will include a spur from the route along Felindre Road into the Pencoed Technology Park
• an active travel route provided around the Waterton roundabout, similar to the work recently completed at the Coychurch roundabout

Within Coity Higher, a number of pedestrian improvements will be carried out, including the installation of chicane crossing points and a vehicle activated speed sign on Heol West Plas as well as five uncontrolled crossing points by junctions including Taylor Road with Litchard Park and the Bryn Llidiard junction with Penylan.

This is excellent news for the county borough. We have a long-term plan of creating a seamless link from Bridgend town centre to Pencoed and onto Pencoed College with the opportunity provided for all who wish to cycle or walk to work, school and college.

The funding provided will improve active travel access between the residential area of Felindre in Pencoed to Pencoed College.

The further development of safe routes in Coity Higher will contribute to the overarching active travel network in Bridgend and will provide key improvements to encourage active travel journeys to Litchard Primary School and within the village of Coity.”

The council’s cabinet member for communities Richard Young

The following schemes submitted by the local authority did not receive funding:

• a 4km new off-road shared-use active travel route between Pyle and Porthcawl along the B4283 and the A4229
• an active travel route between the Bridgend Designer Outlet and Bridgend town centre
• traffic signal junction improvements at both York Road / Cowbridge Road and by the police headquarters and the retail park.
• Phase 2 of the Safe Routes in Communities Scheme in Newton, Porthcawl which involved plans for an off-road route from Newton Primary School to Rhych Avenue via Sandy Lane.

The £3m grant for BCBC formed part of an allocation of £38m by Welsh Government to local authorities for active travel and road safety schemes.

Announcing the fund on Monday, July 20, the deputy minister for economy and transport Lee Waters said: “Over the last few months, during the lockdown period, we have seen many more people walking and cycling to make everyday journeys. Collectively, the funding we are making available will create routes and connections in towns and cities across Wales to give people the confidence to continue walking and cycling.

“The Welsh Government is prioritising considerable resource to deliver active travel schemes. We now expect to see local authorities committing to work with their communities to come forward with a pipeline of future schemes, which will encourage more people to walk and cycle for everyday local journeys.

“This is a long-term agenda to change our travel habits in ways which benefits people’s health and the environment. Many of the schemes supported through this funding will enable people to access town and city centres across Wales and complement our wider efforts to reinvigorate our town centres across Wales through the Transforming Towns programme.”

The works which will be completed by the end of March 2021 are in addition to those funded by a recent £620,000 grant from the Welsh Government for post Covid-19 temporary and permanent active travel routes.

The funding, announced in June, is going towards helping to improve and/or provide more than 150 pedestrian and cycle crossing points in communities across the county borough.

It will also see part of the road space between Coychurch Roundabout and Bridgend town centre becoming a temporary active travel route for 12 weeks. The 2.5km section will include Kingsway Avenue on the Bridgend Industrial Estate, York Road to Cowbridge Road. If successful, it could become permanent.