23 May 2020

Communities in South West awarded £14m boost to build for the future

South West to benefit from £14m emergency active travel grant for new cycling and walking lanes
Additional funding also made available to ramp up critical bus and light rail services across the country
Project in the South West also awarded up to £50k to develop plans to reopen lines and stations closed in the Beeching cuts reconnecting communities

Communities in the South West will benefit from more than £14 million in funding to regenerate local economies and make roads safer for pedestrians and cyclists, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has announced today (Saturday 23 May).

The South West has been allocated a share of £225 million announced earlier this month, to create new and permanent cycle lanes and reallocate road space to give more room to pedestrians and cyclists. The remaining £25 million of emergency funding will be used to help people get their bikes repaired so they can get back to cycling.

On Friday, the Transport Secretary amended laws to reduce red tape and halve the time it takes for councils to get these schemes up and running, helping local authorities accommodate for the step-change in behaviour as more people turn to cycling and walking.

This comes as additional funding is made available for bus and light rail services across England to help increase the number of services as quickly as possible. The funding will give operators the resources to ramp up light rail services, allowing people travelling to hospitals, supermarkets or their place of work to get to their destination while helping ensure there is enough space for them to observe social distancing guidelines.

Ten bids have also been announced today to receive a share of a £500k Restoring Your Railways ‘Ideas Fund’ to develop proposals to build or reopen railway lines and stations, including those closed following the Beeching cuts of the 1960s.

A scheme in the South West has been awarded up to £50k from the fund to progress plans to improve local connectivity, bringing communities one step closer to better rail connections with the capacity to boost job opportunities and ease congestion.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said:

“From NHS staff to transport and shop workers, teachers, volunteers and all those staying at home, people across the country are all sharing the same public-spirited approach to tackling the spread of this virus and keeping others safe.

“To make sure people can travel safely when they need to, we are increasing capacity on buses and light rail, as well as helping local authorities fast-track plans to support cyclists and pedestrians, further reducing pressure on our transport network.

“These measures will help keep passengers safe now, but we must also prepare for what comes next. Strengthening vital road and railway connections, as well as encouraging cycling and walking, will be essential to our ambition to level up the country, secure a green legacy, and kickstart regional economies, as we build out of Covid-19 and look to the future.”

Cycling Minister Chris Heaton-Harris said:

“We’re living in a time where many people are cycling and walking more than they did before, and we must build on this opportunity to bring about longer-term change – where active travel is viewed as the default for shorter journeys, long after this crisis has finished.

“This funding for the South West will help councils provide more space for walking and cycling and make it easier for people to get out and about and reduce the pressure on public transport.”

MPs and local authorities were invited to bid for a share of the Ideas Fund. In the South West, the funding will progress developing plans for the reinstatement of rail access to Devizes with a new station at Lydeway, Wiltshire, which could improve connectivity and access to employment for the local workforce as well as encouraging tourism. Plans will also be developed to reopen Wellington and Cullompton stations, which would connect these locations with Exeter and Taunton.

There are still plenty of opportunities for communities and MPs to come forward with proposals on how they could use funding to restore disused stations and lines to enhance their local rail networks through the Ideas Fund which is open for a second round of applications. A third round of funding will open in the autumn.

Today’s package follows the announcement of £300 million for the South West from the Transport Infrastructure Investment Fund which is being invested to help councils improve roads, repair bridges and fill millions of potholes in their communities.

Contact Information

Hannah Kotaidis
hannah.kotaidis@dft.gov.uk

Notes to editors

Cycling / walking

Many Local Authorities have already started to install measures that will enable more people to walk and cycle whilst keeping two metres apart. In Bristol, measures are planned to close both Baldwin Street and Bristol Bridge to through-traffic and there are plans for extensive pedestrianisation of the Old City and widening pavements in some of the busiest shopping areas.
The emergency active travel grant is the first stage of funding out of the £2 billion active travel package announced this month, and part of a £5 billion new funding announced in February pledged to transform cycle, walking and bus links and level up local transport connections across the country. Local authorities’ receipt of the funding is subject to them satisfying the Department that their plans are appropriate.
This will be vital on top of the £1.7 billion already announced by the Government to help local highway authorities improve local road surfaces for cyclists and pedestrians from the Transport Infrastructure Investment Fund.
It also ties with the Government’s overall Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy which sets out how it plans to double cycling, and to increase the numbers of people walking by 2025.
The Government has also amended laws to speed-up the process for local authorities to push through these changes – for example moving the process online for new emergency traffic orders which will halve the time needed for approval, so that changes to the roads and pavements for people cycling and walking can be put in place more quickly.

Light Rail/buses funding

Backdated to 12 May, the £283m investment will help increase bus and light rail services in line with social distancing guidelines, with measures to keep staff and passengers safe during the pandemic, including adjustments to vehicles, signage, deep cleaning and the provision of hand sanitiser.
The light rail funding will support operators in Sheffield, Nottingham, Tyne and Wear, Manchester and the West Midlands.

Beeching

The Ideas Fund is part of the wider £500 million Restoring Your Railway funding announced in January to re-open stations and restore services on lines that were closed in the Beeching cuts.
As part of the Restoring Your Railway Fund, the Government also launched £20 million for a fresh round of the New Stations Fund which will benefit some areas that may never have been served by rail. The next round of funding is now open for applications with the deadline for bids closing in early June.
he cuts, which were initially proposed by British Rail chief Dr Richard Beeching in 1963, ended passenger services on around a third of the rail network, closing more than 2,300 stations and up to 5,000 miles of track across the UK.

FUNDING BREAKDOWN:

SOUTH WEST
EMERGENCY ACTIVE TRAVEL GRANT	FUNDING
Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole UA	1,398,000
Cornwall UA2	759,000
Devon	1,689,000
Dorset	577,000
Gloucestershire	1,442,000
North Somerset UA	474,000
Plymouth UA	1,244,000
Somerset	602,000
Swindon UA	962,000
Torbay UA	276,000
West of England CA	3,705,000
Wiltshire UA	1,135,000
TOTAL	14,263,000