New route opened as part of 'By Ours' Cowley Hill project

A result of the 'By Ours Cowley Hill Liveable Neighbourhood' project, the 210m long and 3.5m wide path runs across Bishop Road Playing Fields, connecting Bishop Road to Elderflower Road.

Just a stone’s throw away from Rivington primary school, this gives pupils a new route to school, with more than a dozen trees planted for biodiversity and street lights installed for safety.

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Youngsters trying out the new path (Image: St Helens Council) The new and improved infrastructure forms just one part of the 'By Ours' Cowley Hill scheme; a community-led project to create safer, healthier, and more attractive streets in St Helens borough.

Some of the elements of the project include a signalised pedestrian crossing on Duke Street, raised traffic-calming tables around Cowley Hill junctions, footway accessibility improvements, and a new green space ‘pocket park’ which is nearing completion on Cooper Street.

Funded by the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority (LCRCA) and Active Travel England, By Ours Cowley Hill was one of the first projects of its kind chosen across Merseyside.

The route will provide a healthier transport route and help to reduce school traffic congestion (Image: St Helens Council) Following the announcement of the 'By Ours' project, which has also been funded via the 'Freshfield Foundation' and Sustrans' charities, public consultations were held to hear suggestions  from residents, schools and businesses.

These suggestions helped to formulate the Cowley Hill project, with a launch event held to celebrate the completion of the new path this week.

As well as providing a healthier travel alternative for pupils and families, the project also aims to reduce traffic congestion around the school at peak times, and support the council’s net zero aspirations.

Councillors and partners marked the path's opening along with school pupils (Image: St Helens Council) Councillor Seve Gomez Aspron MBE, Deputy Leader of St Helens Borough Council and Cabinet Member for Transport and Environment, said: “This new shared use footway and cycleway facility is a great example of how the council is providing the infrastructure to enable active travel - allowing pupils nearby Rivington Primary School to safely walk, cycle, or scoot to and from school in a car free environment.

“One of the most satisfying parts of the By Ours scheme is that it was developed by residents in the Cowley Hill area working with Sustrans, who contributed ideas on the improvements they wanted to see and it’s great to hear that it’s received such positive feedback.

“Being part of this initiative has proven to be very useful for us to gain a better understanding of what residents and businesses think of the areas where they live, visit, work or go to school – and I’d like to thank Sustrans and all our funding partners at the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority and Active Travel England for making this possible.”

Clare Powell, headteacher of Rivington Primary School, added: “Encouraging children to be more physical at any part of the day is great and especially helping ease the congestion around school because obviously that’s a big problem for many primary schools, but especially where ours is located.

"There’s quite a bottleneck so I’m really happy that there’s been that investment in the children and the younger generation around school.”

More information on the By Ours Cowley Hill Liveable Neighbourhood can be found here: www.sthelens.gov.uk/article/7994/By-Ours-project