North Somerset towns have been awarded an additional £473,750 from the Government to introduce permanent routes for walking and cycling and socially-distanced environments.
The funding is part of a national £175m grant from the Department for Transport (DfT), which will see new safe routes for people to walk and cycle safely built rapidly in 2021.
North Somerset Council has already introduced temporary measures, with wider pavements for effective social distancing and pop-up cycle routes to help safe travel.
The new permanent schemes, which will be completed next year, will include:
- Improvements to Hill Road and The Beach in Clevedon with a one-way system to allow better pedestrian access and cycling
- Creating a cycling corridor on Baker Street and Milton Road in Weston-super-Mare, introducing a 20mph limit, preventing rat-running of cars and offering better links from residential areas to the town centre
- Introducing a segregated cycling route over Hildesheim Bridge to the town centre in Weston-super-Mare
- Several school schemes that offer safe cycling and walking routes to school for children and parents
- Establishing a quiet lanes network of cycle and pedestrian routes between Yatton, Clevedon and Nailsea, while maintaining essential and farm accesses.
North Somerset Council’s executive member for transport Cllr James Tonkin said:
This funding recognises the important role active travel will play in the next phase of Covid-19 and supports the increase in active travel and walking we have seen this year.
Introducing better routes for people to walk and cycle to enable work, education or leisure is an essential part of the economic recovery of our region and we are delighted that we have secured this additional funding to allow us to introduce these schemes and create safer environments for our visitors, residents and businesses.
This council is committed to creating more opportunities for sustainable travel and reducing carbon emissions and these schemes will also support those important goals.