FUNDING for a cycle path which will cause some disruption on a busy Swansea road has been approved, and work on the first phase of it will get under way this year.
An 850m stretch of cycle path will be built on Walter Road between Page Street, Mount Pleasant, and Brynymor Road, Uplands, with two future phases extending it westwards through Uplands and along Gower Road up to the junction with De-La-Beche Road, Sketty.
It was one several cycle, bus and electric vehicle charging projects for Swansea which have shared £7 million of Welsh Government funding.
Speaking at a cabinet meeting on July 18, Cllr Andrew Stevens, who has the transport brief, said the Walter Road cycle scheme now has £1.4 million of funding and was on a “key strategic corridor”. It is hoped that cycling from Sketty and Uplands towards the city centre, with a dog-leg along The Kingsway, will be more appealing as a result.
Walter Road has restricted parking and bus stops on both sides of the road between Page Street and Brynymor Road. The new layout will consist of a segregated two-way cycle path on the south side of Walter Road. Some parking bays will remain between the cycle path and the road, and the road carriageway itself will be narrowed to accommodate the changes.
Cllr Stevens said the work will cause some disruption and that the authority was keen to work with residents, businesses and ward councillors. Former Swansea West MP Geraint Davies held a public meeting about the Walter Road plans in February this year and said 83% of those who attended opposed them, while Uplands Party councillor Peter May said he felt the council should focus more on walking and pavement maintenance. Cllr Stevens said there had been some amendments following engagement with those affected.
A further £38,500 has been awarded to the council towards a shared-use scheme for cyclists and walkers starting at Ffordd Beck, Gowerton, running past the Elba sports complex and on to Pont Y Cob Road, thereby avoiding the B4295-Pont Y Cob Road junction.
Welsh ministers gave the council a further £1.1 million to develop future active travel schemes in Pontarddulais, from Penllergare Woods to Tircoed, from Gowerton to Penclawdd, from Mayals to Bishopston along Clyne Common, from Mumbles to Newton, and from the DVLA in Clase to Morriston Hospital. New monitoring equipment will also be bought to track pedestrian and cyclist movements on active travel routes.
The authority also secured £505,500 for on-street electric vehicle charging points in Mumbles and Port Tennant, although no exact locations have been disclosed, and also at Alderwood Road, West Cross, and car parks at Caswell, the bottom of Sketty Lane, and Pau Square in Swansea Marina. There’ll also be hub charging at The Strand car park, which Cllr Andrea Lewis said she hoped would encourage taxi firms to switch to more electric vehicles. Cllr Lewis said previous funding had led to 133 electric vehicle charging points at 44 locations in Swansea, but said some of the proposed new ones may need to relocate depending on how costly it was to secure grid connections.
The new transport funding also includes £2 million towards the creation of the Swansea Bay and West Wales Metro, incorporating rail, bus and active travel in Swansea, Neath Port Talbot, Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire, and money to lower the 40mph section of Clasement Road, Morriston, to 30mph in response to speed surveys and road collision statistics.
Council leader Rob Stewart, who drives an electric car, said it was good to see a growing network of public and privately-funded charging infrastructure. A report on July 18 by the UK Committee on Climate Change said nearly 100% of the UK car market share needed to be electric by 2030 – up from 16.5% today – for the UK to meet its “net zero” aspirations.
Cllr Stewart said: “If we are going to encourage more people to move away from petrol and diesel vehicles, having the ability to charge or refuel your vehicle with a different form of energy is going to be really important.”
