A major new research project aimed at building community cohesion and improving transport links is being launched in Lyme Regis by the Royal College of Art.

Lyme Regis is one of three rural communities chosen by the RCA to form part of the new project, which is hoped will encourage community engagement to improve relationships and ways to get around town in future.

Designers from the RCA will work in partnership with a number of professional bodies, including the Chartered Institution of Highways and Transportation (CIHT), councils, civic societies and charities.

Biddleswade in Bedfordshire, along with Haltwhistle and surrounding parishes in Northumberland are also involved.

RCA spokeswoman, Belinda Bawden, said the organisation would use the experience and knowledge of its designers to develop a set of tools that will help residents reimagine how they can build their community together, improve the ways they get around their town and beyond, and how they share their ideas about the future in more collaborative and supportive ways.

Designs will be shown at the Transport Planning Society’s Transport Planning Day in November.