Sustrans appears to be fighting a losing battle in its attempts to remove barriers from the National Cycle Network (NCN), having removed just over 100 a year since 2018 towards an ambition of removing 16,000 by 2040.
The active travel charity has released a new report providing a three-years-on update on its November 2018 Paths for Everyone review of the NCN, which set out ‘a vision for improving the Network up to 2040 so that it can be used and enjoyed by all’.
Image: Sustrans
Sustrans is the custodian of the NCN, which it describes as ‘a UK-wide network of signed paths and routes for walking, cycling, wheeling and exploring outdoors’. It said that at the height of pandemic in 2020, approximately 4.9 million users made 764.8 million trips on the NCN – around 121 million more trips than 2019.
Among the recommendations in the 2018 report was to remove or redesign all 16,000 barriers on the network by 2040 to make it accessible to everyone.
In the update report, Sustrans notes that to achieve that recommendation it needs to remove or redesign 800 barriers per year, adding: ‘Since 2018, we have had funding to remove 315.’
The report adds: ‘And though we have significant successes to celebrate, we know that in some places new barriers are still being specified, designed and installed, often by local authorities and landowners, contrary to government guidance.’
A Sustrans spokesperson was not able to quantify the impact of these new barriers against its removal efforts but told Transport Network that staff and volunteers regularly report barriers and restrictions on the NCN’s nearly 5,000 miles of traffic-free paths.
A highway engineer told Transport Network that the issue partly comes from local authority highways and parks departments adding barriers because of complaints from residents to councillors about unlawful use of motorcycles, but without necessarily using data to determine the scale of the problem.
The expert added that neighbourhood policing teams can respond to low level crime that generates ‘lots of local noise’ by asking local authorities to add barriers ‘as a first resort’. This is partly due to a lack of policing resources and partly because their knowledge on access and inclusion is out of date.
Sustrans also appears to be struggling with another of the 2018 review’s recommendations – replacing existing on-road sections with new traffic-free paths or by creating quiet-way sections. This included a ‘bold ambition’ to double the number of traffic-free miles on the NCN to 10,000 by 2040.
It pointed out that: ‘Given that the easy miles have been completed, this is a significant challenge.’
The update report does not give a figure for the number of miles added but states that Sustrans has so far delivered 27 projects across the UK with a further 28 projects in progress that will be completed by 2023.
Sustrans told Transport Network that it has added 11.5 new traffic-free miles through its activation projects since 2018, with a further 22 miles due by 2023.
Image: Sustrans Paths for Everyone: Three years on
The report also notes that, following a recommendation in the original review to create a smaller but safer and better quality network, 3,733 miles of the NCN have been removed or reclassified since 2018, reducing its overall length to 12,786 miles.
Sustrans pointed out that it only owns a small percentage of the land that the NCN runs through, meaning that it relies on stakeholders, volunteers, supporters and landowners to make the changes needed.
Nevertheless, it declared ‘an overall improvement in the quality of the network’, with 61% classified as good in 2021, compared to 53% in 2018.
CEO Xavier Brice said: ‘In 2018, Sustrans set a new vision for the National Cycle Network and 15 concrete steps to realise it.
‘Our three years on report highlights the progress we’ve made working with our many partners, volunteers, and supporters, and celebrates the network as a vital part of the UK’s green infrastructure.
‘The huge increase we’ve seen in the number of people relying on the network for exercise and travel has proved just how crucial these routes are in connecting people to places and to each other, providing family-friendly spaces and boosting local economies.’
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