'Immediate changes' and road closures around Dewsbury town centre

Kirklees Council has revealed immediate changes it is making to Dewsbury Town Centre to improve conditions for cyclists and pedestrians.
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The Government wants to reduce the amount of people relying on public transport and cars so has made £2billion available to support projects such as cycle and walking routes via the Active Travel fund.

Using some of its allocation of this money, Kirklees Council will be making some changes straight away in Dewsbury.

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As part of its priority to tackle the Climate Emergency, Kirklees Council is throwing its weight behind these types of initiatives.

Dewsbury town centreDewsbury town centre
Dewsbury town centre

Kirklees Council will be taking part in a West Yorkshire-wide engagement in the coming weeks, which will give people the chance to have their say on what further changes can be made. This will also take place on a more local level in Kirklees.

There will also be work to encourage and enable behaviour change and to better promote active travel as a choice.

Councillor Shabir Pandor, Leader of Kirklees Council said: “The coronavirus pandemic has been a terrible and difficult period but it has also taught us a lot.

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“We have a real opportunity here to completely rethink the way our towns and villages work. With so many turning to active travel during these unprecedented times, I hope that something we take away from this is a renewed focus on supporting people to walk and cycle.

“If we are to do this, we need to think about barriers that might be standing in the way. We need to build on the appetite people have shown for cycling, running and walking by immediately addressing some of these barriers.

“That’s what these first round of changes aim to do but this is the very beginning, I urge you to stay tuned for the engagement soon to launch on this so you can help us get this right.”

Changes to take place in Dewsbury Town Centre.

There will be a temporary trial conversion of Dewsbury Ring Road to make the nearside lane between A635 Leeds Road and A638 Bradford Road/Northgate for cyclists only.

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Halifax Road between Northgate and Dewsbury Ring Road will also be closed to motor vehicles.

Long Causeway will also be closed to all traffic except buses between Dewsbury Ring Road and Town Hall Way to further improve access for cyclists and pedestrians.

Councillor Naheed Mather, Cabinet Member for Greener Kirklees, said: “We’ve seen such a huge increase in the amount of people cycling, walking and running in recent months and we want to continue to encourage this.

“Active travel has huge benefits on both the health of individuals but also the environment and we have seen air pollution drop during the lockdown period.

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“Our Huddersfield and Dewsbury Blueprint regeneration plans have greener forms of travel running right through them. This is further supported by our commitments to tackle the Climate Emergency and to make Kirklees completely carbon neutral by 2038.

“Active and green travel has been right at the top of our agenda for some time and now is the time to take that commitment even further.”