Balm Road and Church Street, Hunslet

Balm Road and Church Street, Hunslet

Overview

Our plans aim to promote cycling, walking and public transport by providing better infrastructure to allow residents to access key routes into the city centre.

This feeds into our Connecting Leeds transport vision for Leeds to be “a city where you don’t need to own a car” aiming to increase walking by 33% and cycling by 400% by 2030, whilst also helping to boost the economy through providing other alternative methods of transport for people who live, work and visit the city.

As a result, we are delivering a number of schemes to support cycling, walking and using public transport within Leeds, helping people to move around easier, whilst reducing residents' dependency on private vehicles for shorter trips.

Balm Road and Church Street proposals

Balm Road and Church Street are part of our proposals. View the map below to see the scope of our plans:

We will:

• RED line on map: use existing carriageway width to create a cycle lane along Church Street and Balm Road. It will segregate traffic from cyclists and cyclists from pedestrians
• Make the cycle lane two-way (bi-directional). The cycle path will be 3 meters in width and will begin from where Balm Road meets Belle Isle Road and end at the junction of Church Street and A639 Low Road.
• Link the cycle path to the Cycle Superhighway located on A639 Low Road that leads into Leeds City Centre.
• Link the cycle path to the River Aire towpath that starts at Old Mill Road (near Aire Quay).
• BLACK line on map: in order to provide the cycle way we need to remove up to 8 on-street parking bays located on Balm Road between Telford Terrace and Woodhouse Hill Road.

We are also looking into the possibility of providing a pedestrian crossing just south of Playfair Road, however this would mean that the current on-road parking on Balm Road would have to be removed. A blue badge parking bay currently located on Balm Road, would also have to be moved onto Playfair Road. Location of the crossing:

Intended Benefits of the scheme

• Enable more people to make local journeys on foot and by bike, to shops, health services and workplaces in Leeds.
• Ultimately inspire more people to cycle more often, promoting cycling participation across all groups.
• Provide this work at a carbon-neutral level.

Consultation so far

Affected stakeholders, residents and businesses were communicated to regarding this scheme in August 2022. Further communications will be sent as the work progresses.

Start Date and Programme of works

The scheme has already begun, with the full scheme completing by Summer 2022. 

Church Lane

• Cycle lane currently being created from A639 Low Road up to Belinda Crescent. To be completed end of October 2022.
• Cycle lane to be created from Belinda Crescent up to Penny Hill Shopping Centre. Begins November 2022 up to January 2023.
• Works at Penny Hill Shopping Centre (bus shelter) to begin end of January 2023 up to March 2023.

Balm Road

• Cycle lane to be created March 2022 until Summer 2022.

We welcome any feedback regarding these works. You can email us at connectingleeds@leeds.gov.uk.