East St Helen Street Active Travel scheme

Have your say

We’d like to hear what you think about the East St Helen Street active travel scheme in Abingdon.

The scheme will encourage walking, wheeling and cycling in the town centre, by providing improved cycleway facilities on East St Helen Street and new crossing facilities at the junction of High Street, Bridge Street and Stert Street.

The improvements are designed to make walking, wheeling and cycling in and through Abingdon safer and easier by connecting a missing section of National Cycle Network Route 5 (NCN5) and providing improved access between Market Place, Abbey Meadows and East St Helen Street.

Please read the documents provided and fill in our online survey by clicking the ‘TAKE SURVEY’ button below. The survey will close at 11:59pm on Tuesday 28 October 2025

Why are we investing here?

We have been allocated £1,473,679 from the government’s Active Travel Fund to improve walking and cycling infrastructure across the county.

The Abingdon East St Helen Street active travel scheme has received funding for full project delivery, because the current town centre highway and footway arrangement does not work as well as it could for road users. It makes it harder for cyclists to travel easily along this section of NCN5, difficult for people with using mobility aids or adapted cycles on this part of the route and is not easy for pedestrians to cross the road safely.

In terms of cycling, it is currently necessary for cyclists using the route to dismount their cycle and push it for a section of the route (approximately 90 metres) due to lack of cycle facility at the northern end of East St Helen Street (between Lombard Street junction and Bridge Street).

What are the improvements?

We are proposing the following changes to Abingdon town centre to improve walking, wheeling, and cycling in the area:

• Adding two new parallel cycle and pedestrian zebra crossings for the National Cycle Network route 5 (NCN5) alignment between Abbey Close and East St Helen Street, at the junction of Bridge Street / East St Helen Street
• Adding two new zebra crossings on High Street and Bridge Street to provide priority crossings for pedestrians going to and from Market Place, and also across Bridge Street itself
• Widening the central triangular island at the junction of High Street, Bridge Street and Stert Street to enable the new zebra crossings
• Modifying the existing footway arrangement outside County Hall, to enable better access to and from the new zebras, including relocation of the existing raised planted area
• Providing suitable measures to prioritise safer access for people when walking, wheeling and cycling across the junction between East St Helen Street and Lombard Street
• Creating a contra flow cycleway on East St Helen Street (it is currently one way southbound only), with associated junction and signage works to enable cycles to travel in both directions to and from Abbey Close on National Cycle Network Route 5
• Adding new uncontrolled crossings on East and West St Helen Streets to improve pedestrian connectivity in the area and mitigate against narrow footways. We have received some enquiries about installing bollards to help protect proposed crossings and prevent vehicles from blocking them, and also to prevent vehicles from parking between Abbey Close and the Bridge Street junction
• Providing areas of greening/planting alongside existing parking to provide natural beauty on East St Helen Street

We may also have the opportunity to deliver some minor enhancements to this part of the town that will benefit the feel of the space and complement the town’s medieval market heritage.

West St Helen Street

We are exploring the possibility of providing a contraflow cycleway on West St Helen Street (Between East St Helen Street and St Helen’s Court). Currently, we do not have funding to deliver the improvements on West St Helen Street but are seeking your feedback to help form designs. This will then be used towards seeking future funding.

Documents
You can view technical documents, plans and our promotional material by downloading them as PDF files from the links on this page.

How can I get involved

We want to hear your views on these proposals. You can share your views by completing the survey which is open from 12pm on Tuesday 30 September 2025 until 11:59pm on Tuesday 28 October 2025.

Alternatively, you can share feedback via email: ncn5-cycleroute@oxfordshire.gov.uk or by writing a letter to this address as one line in the middle of the envelope: Freepost OXFORDSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL (No further address details are required and you do not need a stamp.) Please also write ‘Abingdon East St Helen Street Active Travel’ on the top left corner of the envelope, so we can easily identify what is inside.

What happens next?

Your responses to the survey will help us to understand if we need to make any amendments to the proposed plans. Once the consultation has closed, we will review all responses received and consider any necessary design changes. Depending on the outcome of the consultation, we will finalise the scheme design and then carry out any necessary statutory consultation.

The timing for delivery of the scheme will depend on what the preferred solution is, cost of delivery, and whether additional factors are needed such as planning permissions.

How is the scheme related to county council policies?

The Abingdon East St Helen Street scheme is aligned with our ‘vision’ set out within the Local Transport and Connectivity Plan (LTCP) which includes reducing the need to travel by private car journeys through making walking, cycling, public and shared transport the natural first choice. In addition, the scheme will play an important role in helping us to meet the headline targets that underpin the vision and key themes that are set out in the LTCP.

The scheme is also 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, designed to create a safer connection of routes for walking, wheeling and cycling across the county. The improvements will provide a link to one of the county’s key cycling routes that joins Oxford and Didcot and connects to other rural communities.

Contact us

You can contact us by email: ncn5-cycleroute@oxfordshire.gov.uk

You can also read more by visiting our website: www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/ ncn5-cycleroute