The Bury Local Transport Strategy sets out a plan for transport investment in Bury for the next twenty years and beyond, covering all modes of travel in the Borough. This Strategy aligns with the transport aspirations of the Greater Manchester 2040 Transport Strategy (GM2040) and will be used to help secure investment for transport in the Borough.
Whilst Bury is committed to achieving the GM2040 ambitions, the Borough has its own unique transport challenges that need to be addressed. That is why we have identified the need for a Boroughwide Bury Local Transport Strategy that sets out how Bury can contribute towards achieving the aims of GM2040 and what local interventions are needed to support the Right Mix and Net Zero Carbon emissions.
It reflects Bury’s specific transport needs and ambitions and makes the case for transport investment. It will be used to guide future funding bids and programmes of work and to inform and influence the GM2040 Transport Strategy and Delivery Plan updates, including the Bury Local Implementation Plan within the GM2040 Transport Strategy.
The Local Transport Strategy has been designed to support the Council’s Let’s Do It vision for the Borough to be:
- A place that is growing faster than most others and has less poverty than many places in the country
The Local Transport Strategy vision is that by 2040:
- The Borough’s townships will be connected to each other, to Greater Manchester and beyond by an affordable, safe, reliable, and well-maintained low carbon transport system. It will be easy to get around by public transport, on foot and by bike. Walking and cycling will be the first choice for short journeys for those who are able to walk and cycle. Investment in transport will help grow the economy, reduce deprivation and improve the health and well-being of residents.
Bury’s Let’s Do It! Strategy is the overarching strategy for the Borough which includes a Vision for the Borough to be 'a place that is achieving faster economic growth than the national average, with lower than national average levels of deprivation'.
In support of this, the Council is driving forward multiple development sites that will create new employment and homes for our residents, as well as regenerating our main town centres in Bury, Radcliffe, Ramsbottom and Prestwich.
Improving transport and connectivity will be vital in helping to achieve the aims of these and other related plans and strategies as well as in helping to deliver Bury's ambitions for growth and regeneration.
Having an up-to-date transport strategy for Bury that sets out a long-term vision for transforming how people travel in the Borough will help the Council to bid for and secure funding from the Government and other sources. It will help give businesses confidence to invest in their activities in Bury, by helping reassure them that the Council has a long-term commitment to improving transport and travel in the Borough.
We will be investing in projects that help make public transport, walking and cycling more attractive alternative options, so these alternatives are able to match the convenience and cost of travelling by car. A lot of shorter journeys made by car could be walked or cycled instead. To help encourage this we will be making improvements to walking, wheeling and cycling routes by creating a good network of safe, well-signed active travel links serving the whole Borough.
We have secured some funding already which will help us make some progress towards delivering our transport vision over the next five years, but full delivery will need a significant amount of additional funding.
The main source of funding for transport investment is Central Government. Greater Manchester has secured over £1 billion from the Government’s first City Region Sustainable Transport Settlement (CRSTS1) to invest in transport infrastructure up to March 2027. This includes over £47 million of the £84 million needed for the new Bury Interchange and funding to investigate the possibility of a tram-train link connecting Bury with Heywood, Rochdale and Oldham.
There is also up to £15 million available in the CRSTS1 programme for walking, wheeling and cycling improvements in Bury, Radcliffe and Ramsbottom town centres for which we are currently developing plans and £17 million for road maintenance over the next 5 years.
As a Council, we have also been investing heavily in repairing and maintaining the highway network. We have borrowed £35 million, spending £20 million in the six years to March 2023 through our Highway Investment Strategy, resurfacing over 40 km of carriageway, carrying out preventative maintenance and repairing thousands of potholes. We will invest another £9.5 million over the next two years. This also includes £5m on replacing old streetlights with new LED ones.
In October 2023, the Government announced an even bigger CRSTS2 fund, more money for road maintenance and infrastructure, and bus and rail improvements. Whilst further details of this new funding are awaited, we do know that Greater Manchester could potentially receive around £2.5 billion from CRSTS2 for the period April 2027 to March 2032 and we will want a fair share of this to be invested in Bury. Having this Local Transport Strategy in place with clear investment priorities will help us make the case for that investment in the Borough.