Southampton welcomes national funding to encourage walking and cycling

Southampton City Council has successfully secured £1.2 million from the Government’s Active Travel Fund (ATF) which is available to support the national delivery of walking and cycling infrastructure projects to improve active safe travel choices

The funding will deliver projects in the city that include a School Street at Bassett Green School, which will see the road closed to through traffic at drop off and pick up times. This will provide a safer environment for school children and help those who are able to walk, cycle or scoot to school.

In addition, Honeysuckle Road will see a new raised table and buildouts which will encourage drivers to reduce their speed, creating a safer and healthier place for everyone.

Other projects benefitting from the new funding include improved safer routes to five local schools:

• Freemantle C of E Community Academy
• Springhill Catholic Primary School
• Hightown Primary School
• Beechwood Junior School
• Glenfield Infant School

Additional funding has also been approved for Bitterne Road East; a cycle scheme forming part of Southampton Cycle Network (SCN) route two from West End to the City Centre. This enables the council to progress with the project along Bitterne Road East from Somerset Avenue to Bitterne District Centre. Works are programmed to start from Summer 2023.

Councillor Eamonn Keogh, Cabinet Member for Environment and Transport comments:

“Making the Southampton active travel network accessible for all is a top priority. We want everyone to be able to travel around Southampton easily; these active travel improvements will make it safer for children and their families on their journeys to and from local schools by bike or foot. They will also create a more pleasant route for pedestrians, whilst actively encouraging vehicles to adhere to the speed limit. I urge people to take part in the upcoming consultations and share their views.