Bishop Auckland

Transport Policy

Significant work has already been undertaken to improve Bishop Auckland town centre from the 1999/2000 Transportation Planning Policy minor works fund. The specific measures that have been introduced include:

• Rationalisation of facilities for taxis.
• Parking restrictions.
• Footpath widening and tables to improve the pedestrian environment.
• Speed reduction features.
• Improvements to cycle links into the town centre.
• Improvements for people with disabilities, especially at bus stops.
• Introducing facilities to improve the safety of journeys to school.

Further work will be undertaken to continue the improvements outlined above and to implement a parking strategy for the town centre. Comments from traders associations, groups representing disabled people and survey results demonstrate that the majority of the more convenient car parks are used predominantly by commuters.

Both the district and county councils are committed to introducing a strategy which will help to reduce traffic levels whilst at the same time ensuring an adequate supply of good quality parking is available to support the economic viability of the town centre. This will be achieved by discouraging commuting by car through charging policies and active management to favour short term visitor parking. Other measures which will be introduced will involve:

• Continuing with measures to improve both the safety of the journey to school and reducing car use.
• Continuing to improve cycling and walking links to housing areas adjacent to the town centre.
• Continuing to improve facilities for public transport.