How we travel in Harlow is set to change, following the launch of plans for the first in a series of new sustainable transport corridors within the town.
Led by Essex County Council, the ‘North to Centre Sustainable Transport Corridor’ will see the creation of new and improved walking, cycling and rapid bus transit routes between Burnt Mill Roundabout and Harlow Town Centre, helping create safer, greener and healthier ways to travel.
Part of £172 million of funding granted by Homes England to support the Harlow and Gilston Garden Town programme, the route will connect into the Gilston development in the north and the town centre in the south. Ultimately other corridors will be created connecting new and existing communities across the town.
Click here to see details and comment on the proposals for the North to Centre STC.
With dedicated segregated walking and cycling routes and the creation of bus lanes to enable high-frequency rapid bus services, the aim is to create easy connections for key destinations in the town and areas of new development, specifically including the planned Gilston development.
The corridor will also see substantial landscaping with shrubs, low-level planting and trees, with the aim of increasing biodiversity along the route and enhancing the local environment linking into the adjoining Harlow Town Park.
Cllr Lesley Wagland OBE, Essex County Council’s Cabinet Member for Economic Renewal, Infrastructure and Planning, said: “We are creating a safer, greener and healthier route linking people with key destinations in and around Harlow, helping improve the health and wellbeing of residents through making it easier not to travel by car.”
Once completed, the new STC will help to develop a culture of health and wellbeing and support the Garden Town’s transport objective – With 50% of journeys from existing Harlow communities and 60% of those from the new garden communities to be made sustainably.
Cllr Wagland added: “Many car journeys made into Harlow town centre are short and can be replaced simply by approaching the way we travel in a different way.
“The investment being made will create the opportunity for people to travel more sustainably between key destinations, and, while this investment is being made in support of the new Garden Town development, there is a clear benefit for existing communities.”