Lambeth council receives £2.6m to cut rat-running and to create new cycle routes across borough

By Grainne Cuffe, Local Democracy Reporter

Transport for London (TfL) has awarded Lambeth council £2.6 million for emergency measures that will see rat-running cut from neighbourhoods and new cycle routes across the borough.

The Government gave TfL £45million for councils to spend on emergency transport measures in the wake of Covid-19 – as of last week nearly half the funding has been allocated.

Lambeth received £2,639,000, highest on the list of 24 London boroughs awarded cash so far, covering 65 per cent of its emergency plans for the borough.

The successful bids from the council include funding for cycle routes, creating social distancing space, and implementing low traffic neighbourhoods, which aim to stop rat-running by closing off streets.

Work has already started on the Railton Low Traffic Neighbourhood (LTN) between Brixton and Herne Hill and the Oval LTN .

Funding of £580,000 was granted for Cycleway 5 in Bayliss Road, which has already opened.

TfL awarded £728,000 for cycle routes in Rosendale Road, Kennington Road, and one from Peckham to Streatham.

The council’s low traffic neighbourhood programme received nearly £1 million, while £100,000 was granted for cycle parking, £150,000 for more footway space, and £25,000 for parklets – parking spaces transformed into a community space, for example with benches and planters.

The council approved a £4 million emergency sustainable transport plan in May.

The measures, to be rolled out over six months, will see the delivery of the council’s transport strategy quickened.

Cabinet member for Sustainable Transport, Environment and Clean air, Cllr Claire Holland, tweeted her thanks to Will Norman, London’s walking and cycling commissioner, Heidi Alexander, deputy mayor of London for transport, the Mayor of London, and TfL.

She said: “Vital funding to try and make sure boroughs like Lambeth don’t lurch straight from one public health crisis into another as restrictions ease.”

Lambeth Cyclists said it was “fantastic news for active travel” in the borough.

It said: “Lambeth – most of the COVID emergency travel plan is funded and we should see more low traffic neighbourhoods, and improvements to key cycle routes, very soon.

“Great work from Claire Holland and her team.”

Pictured top: Lambeth town hall