Active Neighbourhoods

What is an Active Neighbourhood?

An Active Neighbourhood aims to help residents to make short trips on foot, by cycle or by public transport, instead of jumping in their car. Active Neighbourhoods also seek to make our roads a safer place for all users.

This can be achieved through:

  • new crossings
  • new walking and cycling facilities
  • traffic calming
  • introduction of measures around schools to improve road safety
  • measures to prevent ‘rat running’ in residential streets
  • pocket parks

Active Neighbourhoods in Stockport are part of a Greater Manchester-wide programme to improve the areas where people live, and all 10 local authorities are taking part. Chris Boardman, the UK's National Active Travel Commissioner, explains more about what an Active Neighbourhood is in this video.

Heaton Chapel trial

After the public consultation held online at the end of 2020, we selected an area of Heaton Chapel to run an Active Neighbourhood trial in September 2021 for a period of three months. During this trial we installed some of the above measures on a temporary basis, to see how they helped to reduce through traffic and make the streets safer and more pleasant for walking and cycling, and cut out rat running through residential areas.

The proposed measures were in place for 3 months so the team could understand their effectiveness and understand how they could contribute to making the residents more active.

You can view the Heaton Chapel Active Neighbourhood map to see where the Active Neighbourhood was located.

Consultation following the end of the trial

We held a consultation, ran by a recognised and accredited third-party party, in January 2022 for residents to give their feedback, opinions and experiences of the trial.

Work is ongoing to create a scheme for the area following feedback from residents. This scheme is subject to funding approval.

Active Neighbourhood Engagement in Romiley and Heatons

A 7-week engagement period took place in Autumn 2020, which gave residents the opportunity to leave comments on whether they support the introduction of an Active Neighbourhood in the Heatons and Romiley.

The comments left on the consultation pages for each area can be found at: