Parking facilities encourage a love of cycling

Mike Orrell and Charles Taylor at the Market Street parking facilityMike Orrell and Charles Taylor at the Market Street parking facility
Mike Orrell and Charles Taylor at the Market Street parking facility
Cycling to Wigan town centre just got easier thanks to new parking facilities that residents may love.

Eight heart-shaped cycle hoops are being installed which will allow cyclists to park safely in key town centre locations, making it easier to travel by bike.

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Wigan has been awarded £2.1m from the Department for Transport Cycle City Ambition Grant to create five new routes which will connect neighbouring communities to the town centre.

Residents and businesses were given the chance to comment on the routes before any work begins in 2018.

Wigan Council and Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) have taken the comments into consideration and are now revising the designs.

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One of the suggestions from the feedback was to ensure there was sufficient cycle parking in the town centre. The council has been awarded a further £15,000 funding from TfGM to install the parking hoops.

The facilities are part of Wigan Council’s plan to invest in cycling infrastructure across the borough to connect local people with opportunities and improve their health and wellbeing.

Chris Boardman, Cycling and Walking Commissioner for Greater Manchester, said: “By providing more places for people to park their bikes, we want to link local communities together, and with the proposed improvements to Saddle Junction and Pemberton Cycleway, people will find it easier than ever to travel to employment, education and leisure opportunities by bike.”

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The routes will be delivered in two phases, beginning in early 2018 and finishing that summer.

Phase one includes: Robin Park Road (connecting the retail, leisure park and local communities with Saddle junction), Warrington Road (connecting Alexandra Park to Saddle junction), Wallgate/Queen Street junction (providing new crossing facilities for pedestrians and cyclists and a better connection into the town centre).

Phase two includes: Saddle junction (improving routes around the junction, including a new crossing facility for pedestrians and cyclists) and Pemberton cycleway (extension of Ormskirk Road cycle facility into surrounding residential areas).