Car parking and school run latest focus of Buxton Town Team consultation

Buxton Town Team has worked with High Peak Borough Council, Derbyshire County Council, University of Derby and local voluntary groups to produce a whole-town sustainable Travel Plan for consultation.

The plan is so comprehensive that residents are being asked to comment on it section by section and this week the focus falls on cars, car parking and travelling to school.

"As a tourist destination and local shopping centre, our car parks are busy and for those travelling by car to Buxton for work it can be difficult and expensive to park,” the town team said.

"Are there any areas of the town where we could create new parking areas?”

It is hoped the ‘Future High Streets’ grant awarded to the town will provide the opportunity to rethink town centre parking. But is the answer more car parks or fewer cars? And should we have a Park and Ride system in the town?

And when it comes to the school run, Buxton Town Team volunteers have been working with High Peak Borough Council to identify active travel routes around the town that try to avoid roads where possible and provide safer means of travelling to school.

For younger children, the Team has been encouraging the creation of ‘Walking Buses’ where groups of pupils accompanied by some adults ‘pick up’ other pupils along their route to school.

For those parents living in more remote areas who have little choice other than to join the ‘school run’, the team are promoting ‘Park and Stride’ where parents are encouraged to let their children get daily exercise by dropping them off at a designated place and walk the rest of the way to school, thus reducing congestion and emissions at the

school gates, travel time for parents, and providing health benefits for their children.

What are your views on cars, car parking and travelling to school in Buxton?

The consultation can be viewed in full at www.tinyurl.com/BuxtonSTP or via the Buxton Town Team website: https://www.buxtontownteam.org/.

To comment on this section of the consultation, see https://tinyurl.com/BSTPPart3.