Councillors have approved funding from the Government’s Levelling Up Fund at a meeting of the Executive today (Tuesday 21 December).
Nottingham City Council secured £18 million through the fund in October, for a package of measures that will improve the condition of residential streets, encourage more walking and cycling to school, and enable the installation of energy-efficient street lighting and electric vehicle charging in communities.
Each ward will receive a share of the funding, with local councillors involved in prioritising how it should be spent based on feedback from local residents.
The fund will be invested in three ways:
- Streets for people – £8.5 million – This will be split between each ward, with the areas most in need getting proportionately more funding. The works will be identified by local people and prioritised by ward councillors. This could include work to improve the condition of pavements, roads, and cycle ways to make sustainable travel a more attractive option
- School Streets – £1.5 million – Building on the existing schemes funded through the Active Travel Fund, this will involve measures to encourage more walking, cycling and scooting to school
- Greener Streets – £8 million – This will involve a large scale upgrade of street lighting in the city to bring the lamps up to LED standard, contributing to significant energy savings. Under this theme, the council will also expand its network of community electric vehicle charging points serving residential areas with limited off-street parking.
Councillor Rosemary Healy, Portfolio Holder for Highways, Transport and Cleansing Services, said: “These measures will encourage more walking and cycling for short trips, improve air quality, and reduce carbon emissions from transport. By providing new and improved infrastructure to make walking and cycling quicker, safer, and more attractive options to replace shorter car journeys and help us achieve Carbon Neutral 2028.
“This
funding will help us do that by investing in a range of improvements for
sustainable travel, while enabling the council to make significant financial
and environmental savings on street lighting.”