The scheme, based in Hinckley, will improve the experience of walking and cycling. The aim is to encourage people to switch to these modes of transport as is part of the wider Local Sustainable Transport Fund initiative initially funded through the Department for Transport. The 2011 white paper ‘Creating growth, cutting carbon’, explained how changes to local transport could cut carbon emissions and create local growth.

This measure is part of a series of interventions targeting the South West of Leicestershire.  The other schemes primarily deal with providing infrastructure to support the growth in car travel.   This scheme, however, specifically aims to reduce the desire to travel shorter distances by car and thus frees-up the highway network for longer distance travel.

The proposals include pedestrian and cycling infrastructure, traffic calming, lorry weight restrictions, junction capacity/congestion and parking and traffic management improvements. To complement these infrastructure proposals ‘softer’ measures are also being implemented, such as education and training.