Second funding bid for greener, healthier travel

Portsmouth City Council has submitted a bid to the Department of Transport for the second tranche of Emergency Active Travel Funding (EATF). If successful, the money would see an investment of up to £792,000 in longer-term projects.

Cllr Lynne Stagg, Cabinet Member for Traffic and Transportation, said “We hope our bid will be successful following our Tranche 1 success.  We’ve been able to implement a number of temporary changes to city roads that many people continue to benefit from. We also hope the continued closure of Guildhall walk to vehicles will help the return of students later this month as they travel to University.”

If successful the following improvement projects will be developed:

• Creating more space for people to walk and cycle on the shared path for pedestrians and cyclists along Eastern Road between Airport Service Road and Anchorage Road as a permanent improvement to this route.
• New school street initiative that would see roads closed to vehicles around schools in the pilot at certain times of the day which makes a safer and cleaner journey for children and parents.
• Pop-up segregated cycle lanes and the low traffic neighbourhood from Tranche 1 that required longer-term funding.

Cllr Stagg continued “This is a significant bid for us as we plan to make some permanent and new improvements to the city. We have learnt a lot from the work we did earlier in the year about potential temporary changes on Eastern Road and if we get the funding we can really make a difference by widening the path in specific areas for everyone to safely enjoy this route.

“I also want to see more children having a healthier journey to school so we plan to start creating school streets. Every child that travels to school in a car is breathing in more polluted air than those who walk or cycle, and they are missing out on the health benefits of active travel. I hope to share with you the results of the bid very soon.”