As the government ease lockdown measures and the council need to ensure social distancing continues, they’ve applied for the government’s Emergency Active Travel Scheme.

The City Council has included the following schemes in its bid for the first tranche of money from the government for Emergency Active Travel Schemes (£192,000) including; Road Space Reallocation, Road Closures, Pop-up segregated cycle lanes, Low traffic neighbourhoods and Filtered Permeability. You can see the full list of where these proposals could happen at the bottom of this article.

Cllr Graham Heaney, Labour’s Traffic and Transport spokesperson said: “Whilst we fully back these measures put forward by the city council we believe they don’t go far enough. We want the council to be ambitious with this opportunity and act quickly before it’s too late. They should be working with community groups across the city, involving them in the planning and keeping them part of the process – they have the ideas and knowledge to make this a success”.

Charlotte Gerada, Central Southsea campaigner added: “It’s hugely disappointing that there are no plans for any of these initiatives to be rolled out in Central Southsea. With nearly a quarter of people signing up to the “Pompey Street Space” campaign living in our ward, it’s such a shame we’ve been forgotten about by the council. We piloted the Play Street last year and the response was overwhelmingly positive. I hope this opportunity isn’t wasted by the administration”.

Fratton resident and local campaigner Nikki Coles was also shocked to see no plans for Fratton in proposals.

Nikki said: “As a parent with young children cycling in Portsmouth, I never feel safe to go on main roads. We’ve seen how other cities have grabbed this opportunity to implement pop up cycle routes and change the road layouts ahead of life getting back to normal. There are wonderful plans that have been drawn up for what Fratton Road could look like – I for one would love to see some ambitious plans being put forward for the second round of funding”.

Here’s a list of areas the council are looking at rolling out some of the measures listed above.

Road Space Reallocation

– Southsea Seafront

– Eastney Esplanade and Clarence Esplanade (Sections of these roads have been closed since April 10th on weekends and since May 1st, 7 days a week under a Temporary Traffic Regulation Order)

– Eastern Parade Temporary Toucan Crossings – to complement the road closures along the seafront

Road Closures

– Charlotte Street

– Isambard Brunel Road

– Guildhall Walk

Pop-up segregated cycle lanes

These two areas of the city are areas that are bordered by pre-existing on road cycle lanes.

– Ordnance Row

– Elm Grove

Low traffic neighbourhoods

To change these roads into a low traffic neighbourhood with contraflow cycling

– Landguard Road

– Reginald Road

– Maxwell Road

– Tredegar Road

Filtered Permeability

Stopping cars using it as a through route

– Castle Road – is a narrow two-way street, with insufficient footpath width to cater for 2m social distancing.

– Canal Walk is a low-traffic road that is heavily used by pedestrians and cyclists to travel from Fratton towards the city centre.

Do you have an idea for a cycle route or want to flag an area that would benefit from some of these measures listed? Complete our cycle survey below so we can lobby for action on your behalf.

By filling in your personal contact details and providing us with information about your views, you are opting in to allowing the Labour Party and its representatives to use the information you’ve given, as well as other information to which we have an entitlement, to contact you by email, text, phone, websites and apps even though you may be registered with the Telephone Preference Service. You may opt out of being contacted at any time. Your personal information may be used to help us provide you with information to match your interests. We may also use it to alert you of campaigns in which you may be interested and events happening in your area. For the Labour Party’s full privacy policy and how we use your data please see: http://www.labour.org.uk/pages/privacy