Brine Leas School Pupils Launch Safer Cycle Route

School pupil Ryan Lange (aged 14), with (left to right) Headteacher Andrew Cliffe, Councillor Arthur Moran, Senior School Travel Advisor Angela Hewitt, Chris Booth - Senior Traffic Engineer and Beverley Crawford, School Travel Advisor at Cheshire East Council

2nd July 2009

Local councillors have joined pupils and staff from Brine Leas Secondary School to mark the opening of a new cycle route.

Running from Willaston to the school in Nantwich, the 2.3km cycle path will provide pupils with a safer and more direct link to the school. The project has been completed with funding from Sustrans, the UK’s leading transport charity.

The £159,500 route also includes a dedicated toucan crossing on the A51 Nantwich bypass and four signalised junctions with cycling facilities on: Newcastle Road/Elwood Way, Peter DeStapleigh Way/London Road, Peter DeStapleigh Way/Pear Tree Fields and Peter DeStapleigh Way/Audlem Road.

Councillor David Brickhill, Portfolio holder for Environmental Services, said: “The new cycle route will not only help pupils get to school but will provide access links for the local community.

“We are delighted to work with Sustrans to not only encourage more people to leave their cars at home and walk and cycle, but also to ensure that this can be done safely.”

School Travel Advisors also used the day to promote cyber bikes through an active workshop. Cyber bikes are training bikes fixed to a stand and linked up to a laptop to display a variety of virtual courses. Students ride as fast as they can for a lap of the cross country circuit.

The cyber bikes are an initiative to be used in secondary schools in line with the Healthy Schools and Change for Life agendas.

School Travel Advisor at Cheshire East Council, Angela Hewitt, said: “The cyber bikes help people to gain confidence and encourages them to start, or return to cycling.

“Whenever we take the bike out it proves to be extremely very popular and so many find it easier to cycle than they previously thought. We hope to endorse the benefits of cycling and using the cyber bikes promotes this through a fun activity”.

Photo: School pupil Ryan Lange (aged 14), with (left to right) Headteacher Andrew Cliffe, Councillor Arthur Moran, Senior School Travel Advisor Angela Hewitt, Chris Booth - Senior Traffic Engineer and Beverley Crawford, School Travel Advisor at Cheshire East Council.