Cumbria County Council have now had confirmation that it has been awarded £260,000 for a range of temporary ‘pop up’ walking and cycling schemes. The funding, from the Department for Transport (DfT) Emergency Active Travel Fund, is designed to support local transport authorities to introduce temporary cycling and walking facilities.
During the height of the coronavirus people appreciated the cleaner air and quieter streets, transforming the environment in many of our towns and city, this was one of the positives to come out of Covid-19. Many people in Cumbria discovered, or rediscovered, cycling and walking.
The government is looking to local authorities to make significant changes to their road layouts to give more space to cyclists and pedestrians in the short, medium and long term.
It is hoped that these initial temporary changes will help embed altered behaviours and will promote more walking and cycling for short journeys, which will help keep people healthy and to reduce carbon emissions.
Cumbria could also receive a further £934,000 as part of the second funding tranche, later in the summer, subject to the success of any trial schemes and to it making a further case for funding to the DfT.
Cumbria County Council’s Cabinet Member for Highways and Transport, Cllr Keith Little said:
“The main purpose of the first tranche of funding is to promote cycling and walking as a replacement for journeys previously made by public transport. These are trial pop up schemes and as such will look and feel temporary in there nature. Now we have the funding secured we will work closely with stakeholders and key representatives to develop the proposed schemes and hopefully bring them to fruition.”
Any temporary or permanent changes require Traffic Regulation Orders and the appropriate use of recognised safe traffic management systems to ensure the safety of all road users.