Sandylands and West End, Morecambe

We have secured funding through the Department for Transport's Active Travel Fund (ATF) to deliver a safer, greener and healthier streets scheme in Lancashire in the Sandylands and West End area of Morecambe.

This is an area where people are better able to walk, cycle, wheel, and enjoy their streets, due to lower traffic levels and slower vehicle speeds. By introducing measures to help people to walk or cycle for local trips rather than using the car, we can encourage healthier lifestyles and create a more pleasant place to live.

Why Sandylands

The area is within close walking distance of Morecambe town centre and the train station. The area contains two primary schools, several places of worship, local shops and other community services.

The area has experienced more traffic collisions than the national average in recent years, and 38% of all collisions involved a pedestrian or cyclist. Of the injured pedestrians, over half were children. A higher than average proportion of households also have no access to a car, and approximately two-thirds of the area is in the 10% most deprived nationally.

These issues suggest that improvements to the road environment to reduce the amount and speed of vehicles, and improve the safety of the roads for pedestrians, cyclists and particularly children, would be beneficial in the area.

Residents will be involved in the development of the scheme throughout, so they have the opportunity to shape the interventions and improve their streets.

Potential interventions may include:

Measures to reduce the volume and speed of traffic on residential streets, reducing rat-running
Improved or new crossing points to assist walking and cycling - particularly on routes to school
Improvements to enhance the street environment such as planters
Cycle parking

Timeline

Autumn 2022

We conducted traffic surveys to better understand how people travelled around the area by car, bicycle, and foot, with a focus on vehicle speed and through-routing on local roads to determine which streets were being used as inappropriate rat-runs.

15 January - 3 March 2024

We held a public engagement for local people and businesses to raise issues of concern in the area and suggest the types of improvements that they would like to see. Residents, businesses and organisations in the immediate area were sent a letter with further details and there was an online survey and two drop in events at Morecambe Library.

Thanks to all who took part, if you need any more information you can contact us by email at ActiveTravel@lancashire.gov.uk (please use subject 'Sandylands').

A co-discovery report with the findings of data collected is available in related documents below.

June 2024

A co-design workshop was held for local people to drop-in and develop designs for their streets at The Venue @ Sandylands Balmoral Rd, Morecambe.

Local community engagement was open from Tuesday 4 June – Monday 29 July. The survey is now closed. Thank you to those who took part. The findings from the survey are summarised in the 'Co-discovery report – January 2025' which can be found below .

Next steps

Feasibility, design and costing.
Scheme implementation.

Using the findings and feedback received, options will be explored to see what improvements would provide the most benefits to the local community. Detailed plans and designs will be developed for the options, with costs calculated. Recommendations will then be made for schemes to be implemented.

Area for the proposed schemes

Area map (PDF 92.2 KB)