Final public survey on Buxton sustainable travel plan looks at delivery services and electric vehicles

The town team is working with councils, the University of Derby and community organisations to produce a plan for reducing the environmental impact of local transport to make it sustainable for the 21st century.

The plan is likely to be adopted into the Buxton Neighbourhood Plan, also currently in development, which will give it legal weight in local authority planning decisions, and to ensure public buy-in, people have been asked to submit feedback on its proposals.

Chairman Matthew Nuttall said: “These proposals are just the beginning and it's vital that they represent the widest possible range of views throughout our town.”

In the past 16 months, many of us have taken advantage of home delivery services. This has led to a huge increase in the numbers of vehicles driving around our neighbourhoods with some households having several deliveries from different firms each day.

The travel plan proposes to encourage local businesses to develop local low-carbon deliveries and explore the possibilities of ‘piggy backing’ on existing services such as supermarket online order deliveries, and milk delivery services.

Some local firms such as Buxton Dairy Supplies have been using electric vehicles for decades and shops such as Day Zero already offer no-carbon delivery via electric vehicle or e-cargo bike, with Macclesfield firm eLOV Cargo Bikes recently extending their operation to Buxton.

The plan aims to support such alternatives, as well as amalgamate deliveries from outside the area into a single depot from which they could be distributed to cut traffic congestion and pollution.

With internal combustion engine vehicles due to be phased out nationally by 2035, the plan is also encouraging residents to explore the financial support available for installing their own charging points for electric vehicles and bikes.

To read the full draft plan, go to tinyurl.com/BuxtonSTP. To have your say, take the questionnaire at tinyurl.com/hjjuhy98.

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