Three Rivers Proposed Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plan

The District Council is updating its Walking and Cycling Strategy. The current promoted route network can be seen online at www.threerivers.gov.uk/cycling. You can see how we are updating this network by viewing the paths shown in the early Draft Proposed Route maps below.

There are two proposed networks - one is a strategic network of the key routes which we are developing jointly with Hertfordshire County Council and Watford Borough Council to produce a "Local Cycling & Walking Infrastructure Plan" or "LCWIP" (see explanation below). This is shown by pink lines. 

Strategic Routes (pink)

These have been identified through the LCWIP process as the key potential routes which are expected to serve the greatest cycling demand.  We are looking for feedback on whether you have any comments on these proposed routes, or if you consider there are other key potential cycle routes which are missing. Views from key stakeholders were invited in 2020 and 2021.

Local routes (blue)

The other is a network of local routes that connect local neighbourhoods with the strategic network. This is shown in blue and continues the network we have promoted since 2003.

Draft route network plans

If you wish to comment, you can choose to download the plans, which are published in Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) format and draw on them to show what you mean. You can draw on them manually, scan and send them to us.  Help on how to do this can be found at the Adobe website here: Use annotation and drawing markup tools to add comments in PDFs. Once saved as a new file they can then be attached to the survey in the Document Upload section.  

What is a Local Cycling & Walking Infrastructure Plan?

Three Rivers District Council is helping Hertfordshire County Council to develop this LCWIP for the Three Rivers District.

It will support (but not replace) our local Cycling & Walking Strategy and the County Council's South West Hertfordshire Growth & Transport Plan, which sets out that these Plans "take a comprehensive approach to planning better networks for walking and for cycling and establishing priorities for improvement across an area. By looking at the whole network, the LCWIP would help knit together the packages of interventions proposed through the South West Herts Growth & Transport Plan and support the delivery of LTP4 objectives".

The Government has published guidance which explains that: "Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plans (LCWIPs), as set out in the Government’s Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy, are a new, strategic approach to identifying cycling and walking improvements required at the local level. They enable a long-term approach to developing local cycling and walking networks, ideally over a 10 year period, and form a vital part of the Government’s strategy to increase the number of trips made on foot or by cycle.

The guidance describes the purpose of LCWIPs as a strategic approach to improving conditions for cycling and walking, where LCWIPs will assist Local Authorities (LAs) to:

• identify cycling and walking infrastructure improvements for future investment in the short, medium and long term
• ensure that consideration is given to cycling and walking within both local planning and transport policies and strategies
• make the case for future funding for walking and cycling infrastructure

The guidance explains that the key outputs of LCWIPs are:

• a network plan for walking and cycling which identifies preferred routes and core zones for further development
• a prioritised programme of infrastructure improvements for future investment
• a report which sets out the underlying analysis carried out and provides a narrative which supports the identified improvements and network

While the preparation of LCWIPs is non-mandatory, LAs who have plans will be well placed to make the case for future investment".