Children at Castle Park Primary School in Caldicot will now have a safe and dry place to store their bikes and scooters thanks to £6,500 worth of funding from the COVID-19 Local Transport Fund.
The funding, which has been delivered through Monmouthshire County Council, has been used to install a bike shelter and stand within the school grounds, with the aim of encouraging Active Travel to school. The project complements the improvements to Church Road, which will create a more pleasant, pedestrian and cyclist-friendly environment for local people, the school community and visitors.
Church Road is just one of many regeneration and active travel initiatives that the Council is planning to help make Caldicot an even better place to live, work, visit and do business. This programme has already created a new public space at The Cross and provided grants for local businesses to improve their premises. Designs for the pedestrianised part of Newport Road were completed earlier this year following local consultation and Monmouthshire County Council is currently seeking funding for implementation.
The cycle shelter was installed by Alun Griffiths Contractors as part of their work on the Church Road scheme. Alun Griffiths Contractors have also supplied a number of upcycled planters to the school as part of their community benefits plan and have offered for their environmental co-ordinator to come to the school in the future. All of these works reinforce the council’s Nature Isn’t Neat policy, which is aimed at promoting biodiversity and wildlife in many of the county’s spaces. It’s an initiative that has been supported by the Welsh Government’s Green Infrastructure Grant with benefits of bees, wildflowers and other wild life already seen to be thriving over the warmer months.
Councillor Jane Pratt, Cabinet Member for Infrastructure and Neighbourhood Services said: “Active Travel will and must become an important part of our future as we continue to look at ways of protecting our environment and reducing the impacts on our climate. Making sure we have the services and infrastructure to support these objectives is paramount and that’s why I am delighted we have been able to install this bike shelter for the children, and indeed staff. Giving our future generations the tools they need to help them choose smarter travel options and to keep active means we can build Active Travel into our lives in the future. Thank you to Alun Griffiths Contractors for all their support on this project and I look forward to seeing it being used when our pupils return in September.”
The work in Caldicot is just of one of many schemes aimed at promoting Active Travel in the county and residents are being invited to share their views on ways to improve cycling and other transport methods and routes via consultation. People can share their views by visiting https://www.monmouthshire.gov.uk/active-travel-consultation/