Walking & Cycling

Policy: NM12
Lead: Cllr Geoff Blunden, Chair of Amenities Committee
Lead officer: Joanna Hayward

What is proposed?
The policy aims to promote sustainable modes of travel by improving, enhancing and promoting better walking and cycling routes in and around the town, connecting residential areas to key destinations, as well as promoting leisure routes for informal recreation, such as dog walking.

Where are we now?
The Town Council has set up a Green Routes steering group which benefits from the specialist expertise of a landscape architect commissioned from New Forest District Council. This also enables synchronisation with NFDC’s Mitigation Strategy work to connect new residential sites to green spaces.

Initial focus for the group is on walking routes from residential areas to town centre destinations. Routes can be a combination of:

Footpaths (Public Rights of Way)
Footways adjacent to the highway
Permissive routes through private land
Walking routes through existing open green spaces.
The steering group has, so far, surveyed six walking routes and identified opportunities to improve the walking experience – such as provision of seating and litter bins, minor surface improvements and boundary features. The funding for enhancements to these routes has been allocated by New Milton Town Council and work commenced.

Four of these routes use mostly public footpaths rather than pavements. These are:

GR1 – Old Milton to Arnewood School

GR2 – Health & Leisure Centre to Rail Station

GR5 – Ashington Park to Caird Avenue (by Tesco)

GR6 – Caird Avenue (by Tesco) to Ashley Recreation Ground

In a separate initiative, The New Forest National Parks Authority has set up a Cycling working group with the aim of improving cycling routes into and around the New Forest National Park.

Partners & Stakeholders
New Milton Town Council
New Forest District Council

Surveys & consultations
In March 2022, the public were asked for feedback on four walks GR1, GR2,GR5 and GR6. The Survey was available online with paper copies available from New Milton Library, New Milton Town Hall, New Milton Memorial Hall, and New Milton Community Centre. A map and overview of each route was provided with the questionnaire. The feedback showed that routes were used to access shops, schools, train and work – with most responders also using for leisure/recreation/exercise. All comments made, including potential green routes, are reviewed by the Green Routes group