In June 2008 the Transport Secretary, Ruth Kelly, announced that Colchester was to become one of 11 new Cycling Towns across the country. This announcement followed the submission of a bid to Cycling England by a partnership formed from Essex County Council, Colchester Borough Council, local cycling groups and other key local stakeholders.

The Colchester Cycling Town project was awarded £2.1m of funding from Cycling England, and through match-funding with an equivalent amount from Essex County Council and the other bid partners, the project will have a total of over £4.2m to promote and encourage cycling, and develop a comprehensive cycle network in the town over the 3 years up to March 2011.

Improvements will take a variety of forms, including infrastructure enhancements (such as new and upgraded cycle routes and signage), training to government-approved Bikeability standards (for children and also adults), and the promotion and marketing of initiatives and the benefits that cycling offers.

The main focus of the improvements will be to improve access to and from the Town Centre, Rail stations, and new developments and growth areas. Focusing on improving cycle access and usage to and from these key areas will bring benefits in the form of reduced congestion, reduced vehicle emissions and improved air quality. It will also enable future growth in the town to be sustainable, by reducing its negative impacts on the town and enhancing the benefits brought about through growth.

In order that the Cycling Town project is structured and improvements are put in place in a coherent and joined up manner, a Delivery Strategy has been written. This Strategy details how the project will move forward, and outlines the planned improvements at the time of writing, at the beginning of the project.

The Strategy is available for download in the Related documents section, on the right hand side of this page. (Please note it is quite a large document and may take some time to download.)

A website for the project has also been set up, which can be found at www.CycleColchester.org.uk. This website will be kept up to date with project progress updates and future event details, as well as information and advice on cycling.

The next steps for the project are to focus on developing and delivering the improvements scheduled for Year 2 and Year 3. The project will be continuously reviewed as it progresses, and monitoring of work undertaken and its impacts will be reported to Cycling England on a regular basis.