. @transportgovuk has written to local authorities, detailing how they can access £225m emergency funding for pavement widening, new cycle lanes and road closures.

We’ll touch on its key points in follow-up tweets

Rupert Furness’s letter frames the government’s core aims in its opening paragraph:

“We have a window of opportunity to act now to embed walking and cycling as part of new long-term commuting habits and reap the associated health, air quality and congestion benefits.”

Key points include:

1. To get any of the £225m, local authorities will have to show they have “swift and meaningful plans to reallocate road space to pedestrians and cyclists, including on strategic corridors”.

2. £45m will be released ASAP so local authorities can quickly close roads to through traffic, install segregated cycle lanes and widen pavements.

3. Existing cycle plans can be funded, using temporary measures, if they involve a meaningful reallocation of road space.

4. Local authorities must apply ASAP, and no later than June 5th, outlining how money will be spent.

5. Once the allocated money is received, the schemes must be started within 4 weeks and finished wihin 8, or it may be ‘clawed back’ through deductions to other grants.

This is a huge opportunity to make Portsmouth work better for all its road users and keep us safe by #SocialDistancing.

Upon request, we already submitted extensive proposals to Portsmouth City Council early last week and are keen to work with them…

…on putting together a comprehensive Green Transport Recovery Plan to access the DfT emergency funding.

The full text of the 27 May Dft letter is available as:

PDF: http://pompeystreetspace.city/dft-letter/27-may/pdf
HTML: http://pompeystreetspace.city/dft-letter/27-may/html
Images: see 1st tweet in this thread above