New city trail could lead to healthy future
From: David Holmes, Upper Don Trail Trust; Chris Prescott, Bradfield and Stocksbridge Walkers Are Welcome; Simon Geller, Sustrans Sheffield; Ben McGarry, Kelham Island and Neepsend Community Alliance.
AS many have already observed, one of the very few positives emerging from the Covid tragedy is a huge increase in cycling and walking not just for exercise, but as a safer and healthier way of moving round.
While we welcome the immediate initiatives being taken to install short temporary cycle lanes and to pedestrianise some city centre streets, we feel that interventions of a much greater scale are also needed.
We would like to highlight one such which we believe can be delivered comparatively quickly – the Upper Don Trail, a project recently relaunched and devoted to promoting and delivering a 15-17 km off-road walking and cycling route which follows the rivers Don and Little Don from Stocksbridge to Sheffield city centre.
The route not only provides an attractive, safe, active travel route linking all these communities, away from traffic and air pollution, but also opens up beautiful reaches of the Upper Don valley seldom enjoyed by most people whether for climbing, kayaking, angling, horse riding, mountain biking or enjoyment of nature – a huge new recreational opportunity for the Outdoor City.
And the good news? More than half of it (over eight kilometres) is already in place thanks to previous investment by councils and others.
A further 3.5k is already accessible but in need of some improvement. Moreover around three kilometres are now due to be constructed or funded by house builders Bloor Homes and Barratt Homes at Deepcar and Oughtibridge Valley.
This leaves only around
2.5 km of ‘‘missing links’’ to complete a working route, plus important things like signage, road crossings and branch connections. Council planners can also help by insisting developers like Bloor Homes and Barratts prioritise the construction of sections of the route through their developments.
We believe that bold-scaled, joined–up, multi-benefit routes like the Upper Don Trail will capture the public’s imagination and make sure that, when we finally overcome the Covid threat, we will carry on walking and cycling and reducing carbon and air pollution. And not just because we ‘‘should’’ but because it’s so much safer and more enjoyable.
From: Coun Elizabeth Nash (Lab), Hunslet & Riverside Ward, Leeds City Council.
I VERY much agree with David Behrens (The Yorkshire Post, June 6) that it is important that everyone has access to green spaces.
Leeds has more open green spaces per head of population than any other city in the country with the exception of the city centre where there are 20,000 people without access to a public park, although a large one is now being planned on the brownfield site of the former Tetley Brewery.
David went on to advocate the building on brownfield sites, but there are two problems with this. Firstly, if every brownfield site in Leeds was built upon we still would not have enough sites to meet an expanding population and the Government’s directive for a five year supply of new housing.
It would be great if we could use up our brownfield sites first before we extended outwards, but we are dependent on developers choosing the sites on which to build. For exactly the same design of house, a builder can sell it for two or three times as much on a greenfield site as the same house built in inner city Leeds. And often, additional money has to be spent on decontaminating brownfield sites.
In my ward of Hunslet we had a brownfield site empty for 15 years and no builder would look at it. Eventually, the council last year built 26 council houses on it. We had over 1,600 applications for them! So please David, do not lump all town halls together. Some of us love the countryside and do our best to preserve it.