Kent Town Audits Tenterden June 2018 About Sustrans Contents Sustrans is the charity making it easier for people to walk and cycle. Proposed Network ii We are engineers and educators, experts and Description of the Town 1 advocates. We connect people and places, create Route A Colonel Stephens Greenway 2 liveable neighbourhoods, transform the school run and deliver a happier, healthier commute. Route B Recreation Ground and Chalk Avenue 5 Sustrans works in partnership, bringing people Route C Colonel Stephens Way – High Street 6 together to find the right solutions. We make the case Route D St. Benets Way - Homewood School 8 for walking and cycling by using robust evidence and showing what can be done. Route E Turners Avenue - Golden Square 9 We are grounded in communities and believe that Route F Eastwell Meadows - KESR Station 10 grassroots support combined with political leadership Route G Sandy Lane 11 drives real change, fast. Route H Recreation Ground Road 12 Join us on our journey. www.sustrans.org.uk Route J Bells Lane – Recreation Ground Road 13 Head Office Route K Sandy Lane – Appledore Road 14 Sustrans A28 High Street - Ashford Road 15 2 Cathedral Square College Green Bristol BS1 5DD © Sustrans June 2018 Registered Charity No. 326550 (England and Wales) SC039263 (Scot- land) VAT Registration No. 416740656 Revision Description Author Check Date 1 Version 1 DY, DL SP 09/05/18 2 Version 2 DY, DL SP 22/06/18 Kent Town Audits Tenterden June 2018 i Proposed Network TS2 TENT Phase 1B ii Kent Town Audits Tenterden June 2018 Description of the Town school that serves the educational needs of over Transport paragraph 5.216 Barriers to Walking and Cycling 2,500 students and has 250+ staff. Tenterden is a market town in the Ashford Borough Ensuring that an effective and sustainable transport These include: network is delivered and maintained in the borough is of Kent. It stands on the edge of the remnant forest of Tenterden provides an important service centre role • Severance due to A28 and a lack of dedicated important in an environmental, economic and social the Weald overlooking the valley of the River Rother. for its residents and the adjacent villages, alongside road crossing facilities It was a member of the Cinque Ports Confederation being a key tourist destination. context and is a key objective of the Local Plan. however its riverside today is not navigable to large • High levels of traffic congestion due to through Policy TRA5 - Planning for Pedestrians vessels and its status as a wool manufacturing centre Economy traffic, a significant number of visitors and travel has been lost. Traditional industries within the town use to include Development proposals shall demonstrate how safe at peak periods. wool production, however in more recent times and accessible pedestrian access and movement The first record of dwellings in Tenterden can be found • Location of schools exacerbating traffic Tenterden has become a popular tourist destination routes will be delivered and how they will connect to in a charter which mentions that it, as 'Heronden', congestion. resulting in a thriving tourist economy. Vibrant the wider movement network. Opportunities should began to grow from the 14th century around the • Pattern of development expected to exacerbate independent shops, eateries and businesses inhabit be proactively taken to connect with and enhance strong local wool industry. Unlike other such centres and contribute to current traffic congestion many of the period buildings along the picturesque Public Rights of Way whenever possible, encouraging in the Weald it had the advantage of access to the issues High Street and quaint passageways. journeys on foot. sea. Policy TRA6 - Provision for Cycling Today, Tenterden has preserved much of its Transport Opportunities for Walking and Cycling The Council will seek to improve conditions for • Contribute to reducing congestion, particularly considerable character, with the town centre Tenterden is a nodal centre with routes radiating cyclists through the following measures:- within the town centre. designated as a conservation area and the immediate to Rolvenden and Hastings (A28), Wittersham and surrounding countryside is within the High Weald Rye (B2082), Appledore and New Romney (B2080), • Promoting and developing a Borough-wide • Opportunities to link to supporting the visitor Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). Woodchurch and Hamstreet (B2067) and Ashford network of cycle routes; economy Tenterden’s broad, tree-lined High Street offers a and Maidstone (A28/A262). Tenterden has no mainline • Developments should, where opportunities • Provide better cycling and walking opportunities selection of shopping facilities, making the town an railway station, with the nearest being Headcorn (9 arise, include safe, convenient and attractively to the local community for every day journeys important destination for a number of smaller towns miles) and Ashford International (12 miles). designed cycle routes, including, where possible, and safer access to local schools. and villages in the area. It is home to independent National Cycle Route 18 westward passes close connection to the Borough-wide cycle network. and national retailers, eateries, antique shops and Town Wide Recommendations by Bedgebury Forest and Bewl Water, both with • Promoting and providing cycle parking facilities period pubs. There is also a large Tesco which is renowned family cycling facilities then on through the In addition to route specific recommendations listed in accessible to pedestrians from the High Street (and in town centres, at railway stations and at major High Weald to Goudhurst and Tunbridge Wells. public buildings, and requiring new development this report, the following town wide recommendations by vehicles from Smallhythe Road), and a Waitrose are suggested: store accessed by pedestrians from Sayers Lane The easterly alignment passes via St Michael’s to to provide cycle parking facilities in agreement (with vehicular access from Recreation Ground Shadoxhurst where Route 11 descends to Appledore with the Council; • Complete Colonel Stephens Way Greenway link Road). The leisure center and recreation ground are and Lydd and coastal Route 2, Route 18 continues • Taking opportunities to consider active travel to A28 High Street. eastward onto Chilmington Green and Ashford. key trip/traffic generators. when designing new routes and establishing • Improve and create new links to Col Stephens A number of local tourist attractions draw a great many Ashford Local Plan 2030 connections with existing routes, encouraging Greenway. journeys by bicycle. visitors, especially the Kent and East Sussex Railway The submission version of the Local Plan was • Provide quality walking and cycling links from the Line to Bodiam, Chapel Down (a local vineyard published in December 2017. It has the key role of Policy S24 - Tenterden Southern Extension new development area to the A28 High Street. which produces some highly acclaimed wines) and setting the strategic vision for development in the Phase B • Utilise and improve key Public Rights of Way Smallhythe Place, which now holds both a museum Borough up to 2030. Selected extracts relevant to and a theatre. Tenterden and District Museum is at Development on this site shall achieve the creation links and promote considerate shared use walking and cycling in Tenterden are reproduced of pedestrian and cycleway routes through the site to walking and cycling where possible the heart of the town, on Station Road. below. link with the TENT 1A development, the town centre • Seek landowner and other permissions required The town population was 7,118 according to the 2011 and existing public rights of way both on and off-site, Census. Significant housing developments under Policy SP1 - Strategic Objectives to create a connected shared use walking and whilst also protecting historic and existing routes cycling network. construction will add further homes to the town. To promote access to a wide choice of easy to use through the site. forms of sustainable transport including bus, train, Tenterden has two nursery schools, five pre-schools, cycling and walking. two infant schools, two junior schools and one academy school. Homewood School and Sixth Form Centre on the A28 Ashford Road is an academy Kent Town Audits Tenterden June 2018 1 Route A Colonel Stephens Recommendations Greenway A1 Install controlled crossing and widen footways into available verge space either Introduction side. Route A forms a primary north-south traffic free A2 Seek permission to cut back encroaching Greenway between St Michaels and Tenterden vegetation and improve sight lines west utilising a disused embankment section of the along Shoreham Road. Install Cyclist Colonel Stephens Railway Line. The final section Warning Signs on Shoreham Road either crosses meadows close by the operational “Kent side of Orchard Road. and East Sussex Railway Line” which has a timetable A3 Re-assess secure quality causeway link to of historic steam and diesel train journeys out of rear of Homewood School. Install timed Tenterden Station and Museum to Bodiam. gated access onto school site. A4 Apply bound surface to final road planings A (North) St Michael’s to Turner’s Field section to Turners Field and Drury Road. Install timed lighting. Existing conditions A5 Ground works required to raise level New development sites SM8 Little Orchards and of path at low point beside pond area. S60 Pope House Farm are just 500m north of St Maintenance schedule to curtail vegetation Michael’s primary school and the Church on the A28 ingress. New sapling trees have appeared Ashford Road. Shoreham Lane and Orchard Road following 2008 tree and ground works. provide a relatively quiet route to the historic railway These should be managed along the embankment access point on Grange Road, close by complete length of the Colonel Stephens St Michael’s Parish Council Hall. Greenway before they mature further. The initial 600m section of railway embankment is lit and benefits from a bound surface. There are two links into residential areas, the first at Henley Meadows after 330m, and the second at Colonel Stephens Way at the 630m point.