London borough whose mayor is pursuing a pro-car agenda has been stripped of greater than £1 million in transport funding — and faces dropping an identical quantity subsequent yr.
Transport for London on Monday introduced greater than £63 million for councils throughout the capital to spend in 2023/24 on schemes to speed-up buses and make roads safer for cyclists and pedestrians.
However no cash might be given to Tower Hamlets due to issues that borough mayor Lutfur Rahman is about to take away low visitors neighbourhood schemes in and round Brick Lane, Columbia Street market and Outdated Bethnal Inexperienced Street.
Sources informed the Normal that TfL may even withhold funding from Tower Hamlets for 2024/25 except Mr Rahman brings his insurance policies in keeping with Mayor Sadiq Khan’s city-wide blueprint of decreasing automotive use and rising “energetic journey”.
The initiatives that can obtain funding from subsequent month embody Camden council’s plans to revamp the Holborn gyratory, the place eight cyclists have been killed since 2008. TfL introduced final October that it will allocate £69 million in “native implementation plan” funding to the boroughs.
Monday’s announcement signifies how £63 million of that whole might be spent.
The rest of the money is anticipated to be allotted by subsequent March, together with to Croydon, the place a delay has been brought on by the council going bankrupt.
The majority of it — £39 million — might be spent in outer London, together with on greater than 90 bus precedence schemes. TfL says this may scale back bus delays at a time the enlargement of the ultra-low emission zone might improve demand for public transport.
It’s going to additionally allow boroughs to introduce extra 20mph zones and improve at the very least 150 street crossings. Extra faculty streets might be offered in Barking, Brent, Ealing, Hounslow, Redbridge, Richmond and Waltham Forest.
The money will fund cycle coaching for greater than 20,000 adults and 40,000 youngsters and supply greater than 3,500 safe residential cycle parking areas.
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