More on KentOnline
More on KentOnline
Councils in Kent have been told to 'weed out' any problems with future cycling and walking schemes as the government grants a £7million boost for long-term projects.
Cycling minister Chris Heaton-Harris (Con) said Whitehall remains 'serious' about promoting green travel as he announced that councils across England will receive a financial package of £175million to deliver new transport infrastructure.
The Department for Transport has put strict rules in place for the second batch of cash being distributed to local authorities for a variety of plans, including pop-up cycle lanes and school streets.
Several key conditions have been attached, which include open and wide engagement with residents. Councils will also have to report public reaction back to Boris Johnson's government.
Mr Heaton-Harris says the future schemes will be 'long-term' rather than trials and adds that they should be pragmatic and sensible ideas, but stressed that communities need to support the idea.
The MP for Daventry said: "We want to see consultation with local businesses, schools, the emergency services, councillors and MPs because they know their areas extremely well.
"We are hoping that local authorities will be able to weed out the more controversial and frustrating plans at the very early stage and cement good plans really quickly."
At least 24 green travel schemes were created across Kent's 13 districts amid the Covid lockdown and during the summer months, but several have since been scrapped with fierce opposition in parts of Ashford, Thanet and Tonbridge.
Dozens of residents complained about some of the new walking and cycling routes being unsafe, others causing danger to drivers and some businesses bemoaning the lack of open engagement.
Meanwhile, Kent County Council chiefs said they were set short-time scales as part of the government criteria to deliver the schemes.
In the first tranche of Whitehall funding, County Hall received £1.6million. The authority will receive triple the amount this time.
In response, Mr Heaton-Harris accepted that some initiatives had been confusing and frustrating for Kent residents, but said he did not expect similar problems going forward as schemes would be less rushed.
Defending the government's stance, Mr Heaton-Harris said: "I guess there was a clue in the title as it was emergency active travel funding.
"We asked people to not go on public transport and we know people needed to get to work and buy food and provisions.
"So, we needed to ensure that if people were choosing to cycle that they could do so in an appropriate manner and especially walking in a socially distanced way."
The new money will fund measures to stop rat-running while also creating new pop-up cycle lanes and school streets, which will see roads near schools closed to traffic at certain times.
Kent's first 'school street' was launched in July outside Drapers Mill Primary School in Margate, which temporarily closes to motorists between 8am and 9.30am and 2pm and 3.30pm.
Mr Heaton-Harris also said that green travel provides a host of other benefits and shows his government's climate change commitments to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050.
The junior minister, who describes himself as a fair weather cyclist, added: "Before lockdown I was afraid of going on roads because they were too busy for my cycling ability.
"If you can encourage more people onto their bikes you are not just doing good for the environment or air quality, but you are also making traffic flows better because there are less journeys being made by car."
In the south east, 19 local authorities will receive £34million for green travel schemes, with around £6.1m set aside for Kent County Council (KCC) and £927,000 and for Medway.
Councils have been told they will be required to spend the grant money over the "next few months" while further cash is likely to be allocated to local authorities in 2021.
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