Quiet Lanes Homepage
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Macclesfield Forest - 'Quiet Lanes' Scheme, the first in Cheshire.
This pioneering project to help protect the unique character of Macclesfield Forest which cost £60,000 to implement centres on the Sutton and Langley areas of the Forest by improving the way walkers, cyclists and horse riders share the roads with motorists.
The scheme included -
- distinctive Quiet Lane signs at the entry points of eight locations which form the network.
- Quiet Lanes village name signs in Langley.
- reminder signing on rural lanes.
- temporary signing to raise awareness of Quiet Lanes
- general improvements to Trentabank Road and Heathcote Lane.
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Quiet Lanes Initiative
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The Quiet Lanes initiative (developed by the Countryside Agency) aims to preserve the character of country lanes and encourage walkers, cyclists, horse-riders and motorised vehicles to 'Share with Care'. Visit the Countryside Agency's Quiet Lanes website for more information.
Traffic on country lanes continues to grow. This has an impact on the character and tranquillity of the countryside. Through Quiet Lanes we can plan to:
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- Preserve and enhance the quiet country lanes we still have today
- Encourage walkers, cyclists, horse-riders and motorised vehicles to 'Share with Care'
- Provide more choice for local people to get to the shop, school, bus stop or just to enjoy the countryside
What are Quiet Lanes? | Quiet Lanes will... | Quiet Lanes will not... | Achieving Quiet Lanes | Quiet Lanes in Cheshire
Quiet Lanes are minor rural roads, which are suitable for walkers, cyclists and horse-riders to share with motorised vehicles. They should have a rural character with low traffic flows and speeds. Quiet Lanes designation with help to preserve the character of these minor rural roads and encourage everyone to use them more safely.
Cheshire County Council’s Quiet Lane Project aims to:
- Identify, design and implement Quiet Lanes in partnership with local people
- Encourage community consultation and participation
- Their success depends upon the ownership of the concept by the local community and visitors, and their enthusiasm
- Maintain vehicle access to businesses, farms and homes
- Help to provide more attractive routes for walkers, cyclists and horse-riders
- Link together people’s homes with places they want to visit
- Help to connect footpaths and bridleways together
- Be developed over an area to form a Quiet Lanes network
- Calm traffic on busy roads
- Reduce the volume of traffic taking short cuts
- Reduce the number or speed of heavy vehicles
- Be effective on individual isolated roads
Quiet Lanes will be selected using local knowledge and consultation. However, they should have many of the following characteristics:
- Rural appearance
- Narrow and winding
- Already quiet with light traffic and low speeds
- Used by walkers, cyclist or horse-riders
Quiet Lanes will be achieved though:
- Changing how we drive and use country lanes through a Share with Care campaign
- Managing the signing through an area to help direct traffic onto the main roads
- Using Quiet Lanes signs and other rural traffic measures to help highlight the status of Quiet Lanes
Standard engineering measures could be used on busier roads and footpaths and bridleways could be considered to help link together Quiet Lanes. Also a range of rural traffic measures have been suggested, designed to fit their rural character:
- Gateways to Quiet Lanes
- Quiet Lanes repeater signs, traditional fingerpost signing and improved signs on footpath and bridleways
- Narrowing of wide junctions
- Pavements along busy roads
- Better surfaces and drainage on footpaths and bridleways
- False cattle grids
- ‘Visual’ road narrowing to help reduce traffic flows and speeds
- Better car and cycle parking
- Refuges and passing places
- Enhanced verge maintenance for wildlife
- Agree level of maintenance by The Council
- Continued publicity, consultation and monitoring
Download the Quiet Lanes Executive Summary
Macclesfield Forest
see below for links to related information about the Macclesfield Forest Quiet Lanes Scheme -
Download the Macclesfield Forest Action Plan for details of the pilot scheme and see Macclesfield Borough Council's Quiet Lanes.
Anna Geroni 01244 973617
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