Scottish Borders Council Consultation – Spaces for People
Now that work has started again on the Station House the Trust are looking forward to delivering our other objectives around the walking and cycling opportunities to make Stow a fantastic destination as well as promoting active travel. We’re looking for your input on how the Trust can respond to the Scottish Borders Council request that local communities walk and cycle more for essential journeys, particularly on the return to school after the summer break.
We’ll be arranging a Zoom call for Saturday 4th July from 10-11am and if you would like to take part, please message us on Facebook, or email eibhlinmchugh@msn.com.
The past three months has been so challenging for many folk in so many different ways and it’s important that we all continue to be mindful and supportive as we ease out of lockdown. However, on our daily walks, we’ve been struck by everyone appreciating and agreeing how lucky we are to live in such a beautiful village and valley. It really feels that given these unusual times, there’s a sense that we are in this together and none of us want to lose the connections we’ve made with each other and improvements we’ve seen to the environment.
As a Trust we want to deliver something tangible for the future to keep and develop the walking and cycling that has become part of many of our daily/weekly routines. With your help and input, we want to create a environment between Fountainhall/Stow/Gala that links to other Border towns and networks that is safe to cycle and walk. We’ve already had some great suggestions:
- Reduce the speed limit in Stow to 20 mph for a temporary period to give us a chance to understand the impact on life in Stow.
- Introduce a signed cycle way between Stow and Galashiels for young people travelling to Galashiels Academy and Borders College as well as key workers and other commuters. In the longer term this route would open up the Gala Water as a cycling destination and bring much needed business to Stow.
- Signed cycle route between Fountainhall and Stow to support people cycling between the two villages to access the Post Office /Shop/Café and railway station.
- Reduce the speed limit on the back road C11 to either 30 or 40 mph.
- Cycle parking facilities in the centre of Stow and beside Community Hall in Fountainhall to make it easier for people to use their bikes for short journeys rather than their cars.
This is a great opportunity to take something positive from Covid-19 that we can all share and make our area an even better place to live, work and visit. What we need you to do is take a few minutes and complete the comment box with your suggestions by Wednesday 8 July at this link: www.scotborders.gov.uk/spacesforpeople – and do join us on the 4th July, if you can.