Barking & Dagenham, Hillingdon, Newham and Sutton councils are to received the largest shares of £63 million from Transport for London to help them fund a range of transport initiatives.
The new Local Implementation Plan (LIP) funding for the boroughs for the financial year 2023/24 is the latest portion of the £138 million allocated for that purpose under the 20-month funding deal struck with the national government last August.
The cash has been distributed by TfL following negotiations with each borough about projects it deems in line with the “healthy streets” element of the Mayor’s transport strategy, including new local bus lanes, pedestrian crossings, 2o mile per hour speed limits, street redesigns for cyclists and “school street” schemes which limit motor traffic near schools.
The £4 million to be provided to Barking & Dagenham will enable the completion of a bus priority scheme and traffic signal upgrades. Newham, with £2.3 million, will also be able to finish work on a bus scheme. Hillingdon’s is to receive £2.5 million and Sutton nearly £2 million.
Transport for London is at pains to emphasise that most of the new cash – nearly £39 million – will go to outer London boroughs, where residents who continue to drive the more polluting models of car will face a daily £12.50 fine from the end of August when the Ultra Low Emission zone is expanded to cover the whole of Greater London.
Changes to junctions and the progression of so-called “liveable neighbourhood schemes” in Camden, Ealing, Enfield, Greenwich and Waltham Forest will be able to take place. TfL says the money will also go towards more than 150 zebra crossing proposals, more than 3,500 bicycle parking spaces and bicycle training for 60,000 people, most of them children.
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