Warrington Borough Council has been successful in obtaining over £1 million funding from the Government’s ring-fenced active travel fund.

The Government has confirmed with Warrington’s transport team that their bid to the fund, administered by Active Travel England, has resulted in extra funding being awarded for three key active travel projects.

An award of £359,500 has been made towards the cost of the Bewsey Road/ Lovely Lane junction improvements, due to be delivered later this year. This will see the first example of a CYCLOPS junction being implemented in Warrington.

These are now common across the UK, with several in neighbouring Salford. The new junction will give significant benefits to all users but particularly to pedestrians, cyclists and the disabled.

An award of £592,450 has also been made for the Bewsey Road/Froghall Lane junction, which will see it upgraded to a design which will benefit pedestrian and cycle movements.

This scheme forms part of a strategic Bewsey Road cycle scheme, linking Sankey Valley with the town centre. Work on this scheme is already progressing and a public consultation will be held later in the year on the proposed design.

The third award to Warrington is for £135,500 to start the development and design work of a segregated cycle scheme along the A5061 Liverpool Road.

The council says this is ‘one of the most important approaches’ to the town centre, serving most of west Warrington. However, it currently offers ‘a poor and unattractive environment’ for cycling.

The design work will produce sufficiently detailed plans that would allow bids to be made to a future round of the Active Travel Fund.

Cabinet member for transport, Cllr Hans Mundry, said: “This is very good news for Warrington, as it boosts our ability to invest in active travel, in keeping with our Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plan and allows us to meet our objectives on decarbonising transport.

“We have an excellent track record for obtaining new funding for transport projects and this latest success is the end result of a lot of hard work by officers.”