East St Helen Street active travel update

About the scheme

We were awarded a grant of £1.47m from the UK Government’s active travel fund - to improve access for walking, wheeling and cycling in Abingdon town centre. The project proposes to provide improved cycleway facilities on East St Helen Street and new crossing facilities at the junction of High Street, Bridge Street and Stert Street providing an important link through the town on National Cycle Network Route 5 (NCN5).

The scheme is also intended to help improve the feel of the town centre while complementing Abingdon's medieval market town heritage, encouraging people to enjoy spending more time in the centre of the town.

The proposals include pedestrian and cycle crossings and a section of cycle contraflow. Once completed, it is expected to contribute towards achieving a high-quality cycle network connecting Oxford, Abingdon, Didcot, and beyond. It would deliver:

• improved crossing facilities at the junction of High Street with Bridge Street and Stert Street providing access to the Market Place and Abbey Meadows
• continuous footways at side roads to prioritise pedestrian safety
• a contraflow cycle facility allowing two-way cycling for the entire length of East St Helen Street

The scheme is included in the Abingdon Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plan (LCWIP), and ties in with the Oxford, Abingdon, and Didcot local cycling and walking infrastructure plans, to create a safer connection of routes for walking, wheeling and cycling across the county. The Abingdon LCWIP (February 2023) is a 10-year plan (2023 to 2033) to improve and increase cycling and walking in the town.

• Abingdon Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plan (pdf format, 4 MB)
• Abingdon LCWIP maps (pdf format, 2 MB)

What we are doing now

Feedback from the October 2025 consultation helped to identify where some changes could be made to the designs. We have been successful in securing approval from the UK government's consolidated active travel fund (CATF) for a further £269,000 which enables the project scope to be slightly increased to make changes as a result of the consultation comments.

We are holding an update event for residents, groups and businesses in East and West St Helen Streets, their junction with Bridge Street; and Lombard Street, St Helen’s Street, St Helen’s Court and St Helen’s Wharf to share the revised plan on 13 July at 6.30pm in St Helen's Church.

The revised plan and all materials from the update event will then be available to view on this page by the end of 15 July.

Next steps

We will share a final design later in autumn/winter 2026 in a formal consultation. This will allow people to examine the design before it progresses to construction and feedback their impressions of it. A formal consultation is usually open for four weeks.

Subject to approval at a county council Cabinet Member for Decision meeting we would expect construction works to start in early 2027 and complete within six months.

During construction works, we would coordinate works to minimise the impact on the network as far as possible. Further details of this will be available when the project is at construction stage.

Background

Between 30 September and 28 October 2025 we asked local people to share their thoughts on an initial draft plan that included:

• Two new parallel cycle and pedestrian zebra crossings between Abbey Close and East St Helen Street
• Two new zebra crossings on High Street and Bridge Street linking to Market Place
• Widening the central triangular island at the junction of High Street, Bridge Street and Stert Street for new crossings
• Modifying footway outside County Hall, to fit with new crossings
• Safer walking, wheeling and cycling access at East St Helen Street and Lombard Street junction
• Contra flow cycleway on East St Helen Street
• New uncontrolled crossings on East and West St Helen Streets
• Providing areas of greening/planting on East St Helen Street

Feedback to this engagement led to us reviewing various concerns and suggestions that were raised regarding specific features of the plan (summarised in the document here). The results of these reviews are reflected in the plans which will be shown here from the end of 15 July.