As Chris Boardman of Active Travel England stated “We want to enable more people to walk, wheel and cycle every day by helping councils build safe and appealing routes”.
The Rural Design Guide, produced by Active Travel England (ATE) was published in July 2026 will be transformative for Salisbury because it directly help tackle the city’s biggest mobility gap: safe, continuous routes between rural villages, schools, and the urban centre. Salisbury’s outlying communities, e.g. Alderbury, Wilton, Laverstock, Bishopdown, Ford, Clarendon, Odstock, Britford, and the Woodfords, are close enough for everyday walking and cycling, yet currently separated by fast roads, missing pavements, and disconnected bridleways.
This rural‑focused design framework finally forces Wiltshire Council to treat these links as essential infrastructure rather than “nice‑to‑have” leisure paths. For Salisbury, that means protected crossings on desire lines, accessible surfaces on existing rights‑of‑way, and coherent connections into the city’s core walking network. It also aligns perfectly with CWIS3’s requirement to prioritise short, everyday trips, especially school journeys, so important strategic routes like the Bishopdown–Laverstock track provide examples of what we need to build elsewhere in the city.
The strategy is also good for Salisbury because it shifts investment and design standards toward inclusivity, making rural routes usable for disabled residents, families, and non‑drivers. Many of Salisbury’s surrounding lanes and paths are technically “public rights of way” but practically inaccessible due to steep cambers, mud, narrow pinch points, or missing kerbs. Designing Accessible Rural Active Travel introduces consistent accessibility criteria including surface quality, gradient limits, lighting, wayfinding, and barrier‑free design that will raise the standard of every upgraded route. The benefits for Salisbury’s include more independent mobility for disabled residents, safer routes for children travelling to schools like Sarum Academy, Bishops, South Wilts, Wyvern, St Joseph’s, and the Laverstock campus, and reliable active travel options for households without cars. In short, it gives Salisbury what it has lacked for decades: rural routes designed as real transport corridors, not recreational afterthoughts.
Please write to the Leader of Wiltshire Council Cllr Ian Thorne (ian.thorn@wiltshire.gov.uk), ask him to ensure that the rural design guide is prioritised to make a difference for you, your children and grandchildren in Salisbury.
Image courtesy of Active Travel England
