Leisure 

The promotion of walking in Barking and Dagenham as a low cost, healthy and socially inclusive means of travel is an important aspect of our work.

Our policy is to protect and improve conditions for all pedestrians, including people with mobility impairments, and to create pedestrian routes, which will improve access for pedestrians and so encourage walking.

A range of measures are planned which will improve conditions for pedestrians and encourage walking within the borough over the coming years. These include:

• Expanding the borough's network of pedestrian only/priority routes
• Using educational and promotional programmes to encourage walking
• Making sure that pedestrian routes and pavements are clearly signed, well lit, safe and well maintained
• Introducing pedestrian priority areas in our town centres
• Clearing footways of excessive clutter and street furniture
• Providing dropped kerbs and enforcing restrictions on pavement parking
• Making sure there are safe and convenient facilities for crossing roads
• Recognising and accommodating pedestrian 'desire lines' - which are the shortest routes between 2 points that people want to walk
• Making sure that developers provide for the needs of pedestrians in development schemes
• Linking policies for walking with other strategies, such as improving health and combating obesity

Further details on our objectives and policies for walking are set out in our Local Implementation Plan - Our 5 year plan for transport in the borough.

Pedestrian accessibility is an important part of our Unitary Development Plan. Policies have been put in place to make sure that:

• Pedestrian routes are safe and convenient
• High quality pedestrian facilities are incorporated into highway and other development schemes
• Footways are regulated to reduce car parking on pavements

The Unitary Development Plan will shortly be replaced by our emerging Local Development Framework.

The Mayor's Transport Strategy, published in 2001, sets out the Mayor's integrated transport strategy for London. The strategy includes 10 key transport priorities to which the borough has to have regard to when producing its policies. Encouraging walking is seen as one of the high priority areas for implementation. Further details are also available on the Transport for London website.

Funded by Transport for London, Walk London has worked with local authorities to develop a network of high quality walking routes around the capital. There have been 6 walks, providing over 580km of walking, developed and managed so they are easy to find and follow. Maps for all routes can be downloaded from the Walk London website.

Living Streets is a national charity whose main role is to encourage the development of safe, vibrant and healthy streets and public spaces within the United Kingdom's towns and cities. Working closely with local authorities, Living Streets is engaged in a range of high-profile campaigns and projects to encourage walking.

We have recently signed up to an exciting new pilot project called 'Fitter for Walking' aimed at helping communities to improve their local environment, and to use this as a catalyst to promote increased walking.

Walking is widely accepted as being beneficial to health. Adding to the borough's walking network will help more residents to increase their levels of physical activity as part of their daily lives, whilst projects such as the '3 Heart Award' initiative will contribute to achieving improvements to health.

We are also working closely with local health care providers, including the NHS Barking and Dagenham, to develop a walking strategy.