North Bransholme Mini-Holland Extension

The main Bransholme scheme is a great fit for a Mini-Holland project because of its well-defined boundary, street layout, existing bike infrastructure and, despite being on the city’s boundary, connecting Kingswood to the centre and east of the city. This means a Mini-Holland scheme would provide safe active travel both around and through the estate. North Bransholme, despite having a similar style street layout to the rest of the estate and a well-defined boundary, doesn’t have any existing bike infrastructure nor does it provide a connection to anywhere. Therefore, while not a prime candidate for being a Mini-Holland, in the future it could be brought up to the standard of the main estate. This would serve the entire population of the estate with safe active travel infrastructure, keeping cost down by making use of what’s already there with upgrades and keeping new paths to an absolute minimum.

The proposal can be explored more by clicking on the map below; there is a key explaining what the colour of each line means on the left hand side of the map and clicking on each of the lines displays basic details about that section.The proposal can be explored more by clicking on the map below; there is a key explaining what the colour of each line means on the left hand side of the map and clicking on each of the lines displays basic details about that section.

This scheme differs from the main Bransholme proposal and the Central Ward proposal in how little existing infrastructure there is to upgrade. Unfortunately, what there is to upgrade is very recently installed - it’s a shame it wasn’t built to an adequate modern standard and will add to the cost of any wider scheme which does instal quality infrastructure to current standards. The main points of the scheme are new segregated paths to take bikes off of the bus routes, upgraded footpaths to connect properties to the new segregated paths, and controlled crossings to link the paths to schools / nursery / health centre and other services.

With any Mini-Holland scheme, there are a few aspects that are common across all of them and should be considered as part of the proposed scheme:

  • 20mph speed limit as a default across the whole scheme, with roads engineered to best enforce the limit.

  • Cyclists segregated from the carriageway along bus routes as a priority.

  • An appropriate uplift in supporting infrastructure, such as secure bike parking across the schemes.

  • Branding and signage to support journeys in and through / across the area.

  • Streetscene / placemaking to enhance resident buy-in and enhance the wider societal benefits i.e. tie-in with SUDS, increasing urban nature, etc.

Some of the headline numbers (all approx) for this scheme are:

  • Extremely rough guesstimate at cost - £4.5million (based on an average of £500,000/km upgraded or new segregated path; £30,000 per controlled crossing).

  • Hull CC controlled crossings already proposed (by North Carr Ward councillors) - 1.

  • Other existing path to upgrade - 0.5km.

  • Provide priority over side roads / accesses on existing paths - 2 instances.

  • Footpath to upgrade to shared or segregated use - 4.1km.

  • CycHull proposed new bike or shared paths - 3.9km.

  • CycHull proposed controlled crossings - 9.