Garden Town Director Naisha Polaine has welcomed the commitment to increase active travel across Harlow & Gilston with Essex County Council unveiling updated plans for new public routes locally.
A Garden Town partner, Essex County Council’s North to Centre Sustainable Transport Corridor will see the creation of new and improved walking, cycling and rapid bus transit provision between Burnt Mill Roundabout and Harlow Town Centre.
Part of £172 million of funding granted by Homes England to support the Harlow and Gilston Garden Town programme, the corridor will ultimately connect the Gilston development in the north and the town centre in the south.
It is also planned that other corridors will be created to connect the new and existing communities across the town.
“The Garden Town’s ambition is to create safer, greener and healthier ways to travel in and around Harlow,” commented Naisha.
“We want to help improve the health and wellbeing of residents already here and those to come, through making it easier not to travel by car.”
Cllr Lesley Wagland OBE, Essex County Council’s Cabinet Member for Economic Renewal, Infrastructure and Planning, added: “Over the coming years Harlow will see significant growth and it’s critical we support this with the required transport infrastructure which meets targets set for sustainable travel.
“To do this we must, to be frank, make it easier and simpler to leave the car at home. The new sustainable transport corridors will do this, providing not just safer, segregated walking and cycling infrastructure, but also high-quality bus rapid transit, providing consistent shuttle services every few minutes,” said Cllr Wagland who is also a Harlow & Gilston Garden Town board member.
Integral to the proposals are dedicated and segregated walking and cycling routes plus the creation of bus priority lanes for high-frequency rapid bus services, as well as services buses. The scheme objectives are to target the creation of easy connections for key destinations in the town and the planned areas of new development by these sustainable forms of transport.
Once completed, the new STC will help promote health and wellbeing and support the Garden Town’s transport objective of 50% of journeys from existing Harlow communities and 60% of those from the new garden communities to be made sustainably.
To see details and comment on the proposals for the North to Centre STC visit www.essexhighways.org/Harlow-Sustainable-Transport-Corridors.
To contact the project team please email Harlow.NorthtoCentreSTC@essexhighways.org.
