The council organised an in-person event as part of the consultation on the Aylestone Hill cycle scheme proposal last night. I was asked to provide an update for a facebook group that covers some streets in the ward. I thought I’d add it here for anyone else who might be interested.

Thank you to the people who came, most of whom were from our ward.

Key points from my perspective:

• the scheme is very likely to go ahead following the broad proposal, probably with work starting in January
• the council will look at all the feedback and see if there are modifications that can be made: for example they already recognise that having downhill cyclists travelling across the mouth of Moreland Avenue could be dangerous. They are looking at bringing the cycle route a little way into Moreland Ave which should slow cyclists and also create a space for a car at the mouth of the road with no cycle route in front of it (I might not be explaining it very well but they haven’t produced any drawings yet)
• at the same time the lights on Aylestone Hill and Commercial Road will be upgraded so they can monitor the amount of traffic waiting and talk to each other. The engineers say this will improve traffic flow up and down Aylestone Hill. The crossings introduced by this scheme will have the same technology.
• the scheme is linked to the plan to create a “transport hub” by the railway station (basically moving the county bus station there). I don’t have a firm timescale for this but the council has the funding and planning permission so I would expect work to start soon. (The BBC reports work could start in December)
• it’s also linked to the plan to prevent cars dropping off in Broadlands Lane for Aylestone and Broadlands which is likely to be introduced after next year’s school holidays. They hope more families will walk and cycle to school…
• several local residents pointed out it won’t really benefit us unless it goes all the way into town (and links to the hospital). The council has a design that would allow that but that scheme has been put on hold by the cabinet (who make most of the decisisons). I’ll keep pushing the relevant cabinet member on that.

You can still give your views until Friday You can always get in touch with me on here to talk about this or anything else.