What this consultation is about
The Government has awarded the county council just over £1.6m to create a new east to west cycle route across Chesterfield.
The aim of the new route is to create a road environment that is safer and provides greater capacity for both cyclists and pedestrians.
This plan sets out the council’s proposals for consulting on the plans for the cycle route.
Objectives
The objective of the consultation is to gain views from local residents and stakeholders on the council’s proposals. These views will be taken into account when taking the scheme forward.
Target audience
- residents who live on or close to the route
- residents across the Chesterfield area
- local businesses, schools and other public sector organisations
- visitors to the wider area
- Chesterfield councillors, both county council and borough councillors
- local MPs
- other stakeholders, including Chesterfield Royal Hospital, local disability groups, bus companies, Royal Mail, emergency services, local cycle groups and community groups
Consultation methods
The consultation will primarily be online, using the Commonplace platform.
CommonPlace enables us to use a clear, interactive map to enable people to place a ‘pin’ against a particular location and add their comments, as well as a section with the scheme information. We propose to use both the “Heat Map” application and the “Design Feedback” packages within CommonPlace.
Those taking part in the consultation will be able to have their say on each section of the route, so that we can consider views for each section. Once the consultation has closed the feedback will be collated and sent to us, grouped by each section of the route.
Leaflet to households, businesses and other organisations on or close to the route
We will produce and distribute 5,000 copies of a leaflet about the proposals. The leaflet will include some information on the proposals but will direct people to the website to find out more.
For those who don’t have internet access there will be a dedicated telephone number to call to ask for paper copies of the plans.
Media releases
We will send out several media releases to the relevant outlets in the Chesterfield area, giving full information of the project and how people can have their say.
Social media
We will use our social media accounts to promote the consultation. Our Facebook page has 36,000 followers and our Twitter account 51,000 followers. We will ask relevant local organisations to share our messages, for example Chesterfield Borough Council.
Our employees
Many of our employees live in the area, and we will let them know about our proposals and how they can have their say. We will encourage them to share our messages with friends and families.
Local councillors, MPs and other stakeholders
We will write to all relevant stakeholders, giving them information on the proposals and letting them know how they can have their say. We will offer site visits and a discussion with any interested group either in person or virtually depending on current COVID restrictions
Timings
We’d expect the consultation to launch in early January and run for six weeks.
We will analyse all the feedback we receive and consider all points raised before we publish the full Chesterfield cycle route scheme details.