Comment from Cllr. Leigh Jamieson, Leader Green & Labour Group, Babergh District Council
"It's good to see this plan for cycling and walking improvements come to fruition, particularly as Green Councillors at both the county and district council level championed drawing up a priority list of improvements in 2018 and 2020.
The need for such measures is even more acute given the rocketing price of petrol and diesel and their impact on the cost-of-living which really hits people living in rural areas hard as they are more dependent on their cars. There is no funding at the moment for these routes and unfortunately the County Council has not included rural routes connecting villages to the towns, but having the list means we will have a greater chance of winning funding bids and of extracting funding from developers.
Babergh Mid Suffolk Councils need to ensure that all new developments work in tandem with this plan. Too often developers play lip service to sustainable travel doing the bare minimum that is required or in some cases, less than that. We will be pushing for walking, cycling travel, and public transport, to be key to all developments and keeping the pressure up on developers to ensure they fulfil their promises.”