Sustainable Cupar Town Development Group
The promotion of travel that minimises the real cost to the environment
Introduction
A lot of car journeys taken in Cupar begin and end in the town. We aim to encourage people to use more sustainable means of transport, including:
- By foot
- Bicycle
- Public transport
- Car sharing
This will improve the atmosphere in the town, to the benefit of all the residents. We think it is important to move away from the current car culture, and plan more sensibly as a community.
Sustainable Cupar is engaged with the Council and developers concerning the major new development around Cupar. We want to encourage a modern, sustainable development that puts people first.
Sustainable Cupar is engaging with Fife Council and others to help create safe routes to school and improve active travel infrastructure in the town
If you are interested in volunteering for the Town development group, you can contact us using the form on the right.
Sustrans Survey of four schools in Cupar pre works on Red Route
Whether you are trying to get around Cupar on foot, with a small child, in a wheelchair or on a bike, the experience of doing this in Cupar can be very difficult. In 2015, prompted by concerned parents from Castlehill Primary School, Sustainable Cupar embarked on an investigation as to how the safety of children travelling to and from school could be improved.
This has led Sustainable Cupar to develop a possible “Red Route” active travel path (see red route on map). The intention, for this route, is to allow people to cross the town without using main roads. The route will connect Castlehill Primary School to Elmwood Sports Centre, with some of the route being completely off road as it crosses the Wards and connects to Orchard Walk.
Sustainable Cupar has been working with Sustrans over the past few years on this project. We have had consultation with other bodies as well, for example, Scottish Environmental Protection Agency and Fife Council. Sustrans recently approved funding to progress with the ecological assessment of the site for the path and to progress the planning application. Sustainable Cupar and Sustrans are now ready to put in a planning application for the work involved to build this route.
As we go towards planning we want to carry out a “before the works” survey to establish the impact of this new path in terms of how safe we feel travelling actively around town and how often we actively travel around town. To that end we would like to hear about your experiences of getting around and about in Cupar. We will redo the survey after the path is built.
The success of the survey depends on publicity. We plan to use the local press, Face Book, Cupar Now and word of mouth to promote the survey. Leaflets will be available with QR codes linking to three online surveys for (1) pupil, (2) teacher, and (3) parent / carer. Please do help spread the word. The survey is online, and anonymous.
The map below shows where the “Red Route” will go, not just the proposed Red Route path but Sustainable Cupar’s other ideas for safe travel throughout the town. We would really appreciate if you complete the survey to help us see if the “Red Route” can improve active travel for people in Cupar in the future.
