Active Travel Forum for Bury St Edmunds and surrounding villages

Aims
The Forum gathers the views of community members and make the case to policy makers and planners for better active travel infrastructure in the area. It facilitates information sharing, discussion and joint planning of active travel improvements for our part of West Suffolk.
Specifically, it will engage local communities as far as possible in developing a plan of potential cycling and pedestrian routes into Bury to coincide with council planning and funding cycles.

Our definition of active travel

Our working definition of active travel is “travel in which the sustained physical exertion of the traveller directly contributes to their motion – ie walking, wheeling and cycling”

Based on S Cook et al, More than walking and cycling: What is ‘active travel’?, Transport Policy, Volume 126, 2022, Pages 151-161

Scope of the Forum
The priority for Suffolk CC is currently the development of active travel within and into the town, so it makes sense for the Forum to focus on those (rather than, for example, paths between villages). The Forum will aim to involve as many interested parties as possible in its activities, from Bury St Edmunds, the Fornhams, Great Barton, Rougham,
Rushbrooke, the Whelnethams, Sicklesmere, Nowton, Horringer and Westley (ie all within easy cycling distance of Bury).

How the Forum works in practice
EcoCarriers BSE convenes Forum meetings and provides the secretariat. Forum members decide how to organise themselves in terms of chairing meetings and sub groups etc. EcoCarriers BSE will support this as appropriate/required. Eco Carriers BSE is a not-for-profit community business that aims to promote cycling over driving for local journeys in order to help tackle climate change.

Who benefits
Everyone benefits from better walking and cycling infrastructure: individuals who walk or cycle more as result, and the wider community in terms of less pollution and congestion, and less burden on the NHS.

Current activity
The Forum is working on a submission to Suffolk County Council’s Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plan consultation. We want to see better cycling routes into Bury St Edmunds from the surrounding villages, and we’re developing plans that link Culford, the Fornhams, Risby, Chevington and Great Whelnetham to the town.