Active communities get mapping in rural Clydesdale

In this article, Community Action Lanarkshire tell us about a project that's encouraging active travel in rural Clydesdale. 

Communities in rural Clydesdale have been sharing their local knowledge to create a series of new local travel maps and signage to promote walking, cycling and sustainable travel.

The project will see Active Travel maps launched in April 2020 for nine villages across rural Clydesdale to complement a new waymarked route and map board per village, with the aim of encouraging more people to choose sustainable and healthy travel where they can.

The project is coordinated by Community Action Lanarkshire, facilitated by creative consultants Icecream Architecture and funded by LEADER, Smarter Choices Smarter Places and the Renewable Energy Fund.

The mapping workshops have been a great success with an abundance of local knowledge being shared at each mapping workshop, not only about active travel routes but also local history and heritage.

The villages of Rigside, Douglas, Crawfordjohn, Abington, Leadhills, Lamington and Crawford & Elvanfoot have all had sessions during which people had the opportunity to co-create and test the design of local maps and signage to connect people to their facilities, services, environment and heritage. Glespin is the final workshop to take place at Glespin Hall on Saturday 29February 2pm until 4pm.

Icecream architecture are also visiting six primary schools – Rigside, Douglas, Lamington, Abington, Crawford and Leadhills to work with local children to develop creative maps, explore active travel ideas and go on a themed ‘Walk Out’ with banners and placards.

The project will be concluded with three community cycles and a celebratory launch event in March held in collaboration with Free Wheel North, who are currently carrying out a bikeability project in local schools. Keep a lookout on www.communityactionlan.org for more details over the next few weeks.