Decision details

On 9 May 2020, the Transport Secretary announced a £2 billion package to put cycling and walking at the heart of the Government’s transport policy. 

The first stage, worth £250 million, is for emergency interventions to make cycling and walking safer.  The County Council received an allocation of £784k and submitted a bid, on 5 June 2020, to the Department for Transport (DfT) for seven initiatives in areas which, until the COVID-19 crisis, were heavily reliant on public transport.

There is no guarantee the DfT will accept the proposed schemes which include a combination of temporary traffic management, such as cones and signing, light segregation using ‘traffic wands’, planters, water-filled barriers, road markings and temporary 20mph speed limits.

The County Council has been working closely with district and borough partners to look at a range of ways to improve cycling provision as a direct response to the easing of lockdown.

The works will be delivered via the County Council’s Framework Lot 1 Contractor, Balfour Beatty, and must commence no later than four weeks after the announcement of the funding award. The works must be completed within a further eight weeks. If not, under the DfT criteria, some of the funding may have to be returned.

The Director of Law and Assurance –

(1)         notes the addition to the capital allocation of £0.547m to the highways capital budget and the additional £0.234m to the highways revenue budget

(2)         approves the implementation of the seven schemes outlined in Appendix A of the report (via the Balfour Beatty Living Places contract)

(3)         delegates authority to the Director of Highways, Transport and Planning, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Highways and Infrastructure, to subsequently amend or remove schemes as part of dynamic monitoring.

None