Pedal Peak District Final Report December 2009 – March 2011 Description Pedal Peak District was the Peak District National Park Authority’s premier cycling development project, funded and supported by the Department for Transport and Cycling England, from December 2009 to 31 March 2011. The project was fully supported by Derbyshire County Council, High Peak Borough Council, Derbyshire Dales District Council and Visit Peak District. Pedal Peak District has delivered significant infrastructure development and a social marketing programme. The Infrastructure work constituted a major element of this project. At the time of writing a great deal has been achieved and the works are still continuing for a late spring 2011 opening. The four closed tunnels have been cleared, surveyed and repaired and the entrance doors removed. Work is currently taking place to install a power supply and lighting. The tunnels, structures and a large proportion of the trail is also to be resurfaced and the access improved at Blackwell Mill Cottages, Great Longstone and Coombs Road. New signs will be put up on the trail, along with interpretation about the new route. This will include listening posts outlining the history of the tunnels. This work has involved the balancing of a large number of needs including detailed consideration of the unique landscape, conservation and heritage features of the trail, tunnels and the surrounding area. These features, and the issues that they raise, together with the limited project timescale have meant that the full link to Buxton through Woo Dale cannot be achieved in the project term. Planning consent has been achieved, through Peak Cycle Links, for a section of route to the north of Buxton at Staker Hill. (Peak Cycle Links was set up in August 2010 for the purpose of delivering the sections of route outside the boundary of the National Park). Further work has been conducted through Peak Cycle Links to help bring about further extensions to the route in the future. These major infrastructure works have been carried out, by necessity, within an extremely tight time schedule and, consequently, have been conducted in a reactionary manner. Substantial issues and delays have occurred during the progress of the project in particular in the planning process. Other projects should allow a sufficient project planning time, have carried out preliminary work and have planning permissions in place before beginning work on the ground. In addition, future projects should be aware of the wide range of technical specialisms which are involved in a project of this type and scale, and the expertise which is required. On the social marketing side, Pedal Peak District was provided with an activity diary by Sustrans to record interventions, both planned and unplanned, which could potentially affect levels of cycling. Events which broadly came under four key categories; Organised cycle rides (e.g. 5 miles to Fabulous, Women on Wheels) Supported group rides from a cycle hire centre Family Fun Days Cycle skills training (children and adults) Bike maintenance courses These took place across a number of locations around the Peak District, including Parsley Hay and Derwent cycle hire centres and Bakewell. Each activity was tailored to the audience attending and over 3,200 participants took part in these events over the summer period. There were regular events targeted at, but not exclusively for women, providing extra support, training and specialised information. Several participants attended these workshops and cycle rides more than once. In the autumn the project shifted its focus from visitors to residents and appointed local cycle trainers, from Pedal Ready Cooperative, to carry out extended community promotion in and around Bradfield and Bakewell. This increased the capacity of the Pedal Peak District team as Pedal Ready were able to rapidly and actively promote the uptake of cycle training and offer follow-up cycle coaching to people who had already undertaken a cycle training session. In addition, the external funding enabled ‘free’ Bikeability’ level two and three cycle training to be delivered for anyone who wished to cycle to school or work in Bradfield and Bakewell, and to new and beginner cyclists. Training was targeted to schools and other local organisations, including a commuting promotion at Peak District National Park Authority. Commuter take up was low, possibly as it was offered during the winter months. School-based cycling was very successful, however, and reached well over 200 pupils, teachers and parents. Achievements Capital works focused on the re-opening of the four disused rail tunnels on the Monsal Trail (each around 400m long) and improvements in access to the trail. These works presented significant technical challenges but will result in an outstanding experience for trail users. Local businesses have already started to take advantages of the opportunities that Pedal Peak District has presented as new cycle hire centres are being established in the Bakewell and Buxton areas. Cycle counters were also installed at four locations in the national park to measure usage of the cycling trails (see accompanying report for data from these). The social marketing programme achieved the requirement of signing up 1,000 people in the target audience to the project website by the September 2010 deadline. A total of 2,043 people have signed up so far during the total project period and took part in logging their journeys. Of these 1,098 were in the target audience (i.e. participants cycling 1-3 times a month or less). Cycling England’s initial findings on the baseline survey of these participants found seven per cent of the people taking part had some form of disability, which reflects the work of the project to increase opportunities and access to cycling for all. Pedal Peak District interacted with just over 3,000 people at cycling training, rides and bike maintenance course events between April and September 2010. Case studies (pages 8 - 20) of this report of some of the people who took part illustrate the project’s success. Through the main summer months we worked with Visit Peak District on a ‘Saddle up for Summer’ campaign (see attached report). Key highlights include: The campaign contributed to 1,425 bed nights being booked in local accommodation providers, with an estimated economic benefit of £160,000 119,000 people clicked through to the Saddle up for Summer cycling information on their web site – by far the most visited area of their website More than 20,000 people downloaded cycling maps and information Development of the Cyclists Welcome scheme with local tourism businesses The Peak District National Park Authority (PDNPA) is continuing to work with Visit Peak District to further promote cycling opportunities. The PDNPA’s Live and Work Rural scheme has been able to assist rural accommodation businesses with small grants to enable them to improve their facilities for cyclists in order to achieve the Cyclists Welcome accreditation. Between June and September 2010 we employed social media experts Katapult to promote a three month online social media campaign (see their full report in the accompanying materials). The purpose of this campaign was to drive more people to the Pedal Peak District website to gain more registrations. Three online groups were identified and targeted: Families, Foodies, Health and Fitness. Activity included nine articles published on two websites – Squidoo and Hubpages, Facebook and Twitter promotions; Google placements ads, advertising on Mumsnet, development of ‘Landing Pages’ with prizes donated by Peak District businesses as incentives for people to register on the website. From October 2010 until March 2011 we worked with Pedal Ready, a local cycle training provider, to develop cycling opportunities in the Bakewell and Bradfield areas as a pilot that could be rolled out to other areas of the national park with future funding (case study 4, p16).. Target audience Pedal Peak District Project was required to target non-cyclists, occasional cyclists and returning cyclists. As a national park authority we were keen to involve traditionally under- represented groups such as young people, people from black and minority ethnic backgrounds, people from disadvantaged or inner city areas as well as visitors and local residents. Through developing positive leisure cycling experiences, early evidence has shown that more people have been encouraged to take up everyday cycling as a viable, sustainable alternative to car use (The Finding New Solutions Leisure cycling programme interim evaluation report, February 2011). Delivery Key activities in delivering were: Creating and maintaining the specific website www.pedalpeakdistrict.co.uk and encouraging all participants to sign up to the behavioural change programme that gave people information, support and incentives to carry on cycling. Marketing of cycling events through traditional and new media (with our partner Katapult) eg leaflets, posters, news releases, Facebook and Twitter. Cycle confidence training and learn to ride sessions for adults and families to increase confidence and skills to ride on the road (delivered mainly by partners Pedal Ready). Supported visits for disadvantaged groups eg disabled and other under represented groups offering safe and enjoyable rides to get them on bikes Organised led rides eg women on wheels, five mile social rides Bike maintenance classes run by PDNPA cycle hire staff based at cycle hire centres and