Road could be coned off to help distancing

Part of a major Horsham road could be temporarily coned off for cycling and walking to help maintain social distancing as the coronavirus lockdown eases.

West Sussex County Council has submitted a number of safe space cycling schemes to the Department for Transport to consider.

One of the seven schemes is for Albion Way in Horsham.

The county council said it be looking to cone off one lane in each direction from Sainsbury’s and Waitrose to the Bishopric to provide space for people to cycle and walk between the supermarkets and rest of the town centre.

This was one of the suggestions made by Horsham Lib Dems last month.

They also called on the county council to complete the ‘missing link’ in the Horsham to Crawley cycle route and implement number of other measures at locations across the town.

They also suggest introducing school streets which give more safe spaces for children on foot and bikes by removing cars near school entrances at the start and end of the day.

Francis Vernon, chair of the Horsham District Cycling

Forum, felt taking measures to enable active travel would be ‘crucial’ in allowing people to get around safely due to the need to maintain social distancing.

He said the group supported plans for a pop-up cycle lane in Albion Way, but given it is only a short stretch of road he felt it should link up with the existing cycle track by Prewetts Mill near the Sainsbury’s roundabout.

They would also support extending it to the junction with North Parade and beyond to East Street to create a ‘backbone’ safe cycle route across town.

The pop-up lane for Albion Way has been welcomed by several other groups.

Ruth Fletcher, a Lib Dem district councillor, explained that they needed urgent action in West Sussex to follow the example of other parts of the country where measures have already been implemented.

She said: “Although ours is only a small scheme, it is important because the government has said it will make much bigger sums available to those councils which deliver successful first projects.”

The Horsham Green Party called it a ‘good start’ but felt the pop-up lane should link up with other routes. Both XR Horsham and Sussex Green Living supported the creation of more pop-up lanes.