Surrey County Council has been allocated £6,445,750 of government funding to invest in improved footpaths and cycleways for residents.
Surrey was granted £848, 000 in June 2020 which the council upped to £1.69 million to support the roll out of ten active travel schemes. The first scheme to be installed was in Farnham, where pavements have been widened to help people maintain social distancing while shopping in the town centre.
Consultation on these improvement proposals has generated over 3, 000 comments to date. Residents can continue to have their say about what schemes could work in their local area by using interactive maps available via the council’s website: www.surreycc.gov.uk/activetravelfund. Information about the schemes to be taken forward will be announced following further consultation with residents.
Matt Furniss, Cabinet Member for Highways, said: “We’re delighted that the government has recognised our ambitious programme to support walking and cycling safely in Surrey by allocating us the third highest amount of local authority funding.
“We know that the COVID-19 pandemic has encouraged our residents to walk and cycle more. We want to keep our residents moving across the county and ensure that they continue to reap the benefits of outdoor activities on both their mental and physical health.
“With transportation responsible for 46% of Surrey’s carbon emissions, we are also committed to encouraging more active travel to help our environment. By using our cars less, we can reduce congestion across our network and improve air quality.”
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: "We want to do everything we can to make it easy for people to include some activity in their daily routines – whether that’s cycling to work or walking safely to school."
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said: "It has been great to see so many people build cycling and walking into their daily travel habits. To support them, we know it’s vital to have the right infrastructure in place so everyone – cyclists, pedestrians and motorists – can use our roads."
