Final stage of Coventry cycleway approved
The City Centre Cycleway will link Pool Meadow bus station and Coventry train station
The final stage of Coventry's City Centre Cycleway, linking Coventry train station with Pool Meadow bus station, has been approved.
Nearly £4 million will be spent on the cycleway which will see a number of footpaths removed and replaced with footways and cycle tracks.
The project will also link up with existing cycle routes heading out of the city.
The plans were approved in February 2024 but were put on hold because the Very Light Railway (VLR) project was going on at the same time.
Now, design work has been completed so a joined-up, continuous route, can be cycled.
The route will extend south to the junction of Warwick Road and Spencer Road following the council’s receipt of Section 106 funds to deliver cycle infrastructure improvements tied to the VITA Students development on Warwick Road.
Cllr Patricia Hetherton, the cabinet member for city services, backed the latest plan when she met with officers this week.
It will involve removing footpaths along Queen Victoria Road, Greyfriars Road, Warwick Row, Warwick Road, Manor House Drive, Ringway St Patricks, Eaton Road, Friargate Boulevard, Westminster Road, Central Six Retail Park Access Road, Michaelmas Road and Spencer Road.
A designated cycle track will also be created along Freemens Way, Greyfriars Green and the footpath between Manor House Drive and Warwick Road.
A report written by John Seddon, the council’s strategic lead on policy and innovation, explained that the funding required for all sections of the City Centre Cycleway was £3,808,500.
Nearly £2.2m of that has been secured through an Active Travel capital grant already approved by cabinet members while the s106 contribution amounts to £108.500.
The remainder will be subject to to a funding submission to the West Midlands Combined Authority.
He added: “The funding can only be spent on the cycleway and not revenue type activities such as highway maintenance. In the highly unlikely scenario that the funding bid is not approved, the scheme will not progress. There are therefore no additional financial implications for the council arising from the recommendations of this report.”
Cllr Stephen Gray of the Green and Independent Alliance Group at the city council was also in favour of the plans: “It is great to see an increase in the cycle network. It seems as though this joins things up which makes them exponentially more useful and will get people cycling and out of cars.”