Our Streetspace programme will also help to encourage active travel, reduce traffic in residential areas and improve air quality across the borough. By avoiding a car-led recovery from the pandemic, we will be able to support the large increase in walking and cycling that has happened as a result. 

We’ve received funding to design and build a cycle route from Greenwich Park to Shooters Hill through the centre of the borough via Old Dover Road and Shooters Hill Road. This route will serve four secondary schools which are situated on the route or very nearby, meaning pupils will have a safer and healthy alternative mode of travel to using public transport. 

We’ve also received funding to develop designs for a cycle route from Eltham to Greenwich Park and cycle improvements in Greenwich Town Centre. These routes will be considered for further funding once the design process has been completed. 

Social distancing measures have already been installed in Eltham High Street, and we’ve now got funding to implement more measures in Plumstead High Street and Queen Elizabeth Hospital. 

We did not receive all the social distancing funding we bid for, however, so our plans to make space in Woolwich and Greenwich town centres have been funded directly by the council. 

We’re also using the funding to create three emergency school streets at: 

• Charlton Manor Primary, Indus Road and Nigeria Road 
• Invicta Primary, Invicta Road and Siebert Road 
• Wyborne Primary, Ivor Grove, between the junctions with Footscray Road and Castleford Avenue 

School Streets are closed to motor vehicles at school drop-off and pick-up times, making roads around schools safer for families and encouraging active travel. 

The funding will also allow us to develop our proposals to install more modal filters in the borough. Modal filters create a low traffic environment by restricting access to through-traffic but allowing walking and cycling on individual streets or areas. These roads are still accessible by car, but through-traffic in residential areas is reduced. 

We are developing proposals for modal filters to be used in: 

• West Greenwich 
• East Greenwich  
• Plumstead  
• Woolwich

Cllr Sizwe James, Cabinet Member for Environment, Sustainability and Transport said:  

“We have already done lots of work to improve our streets and town centres to keep people safe in response to the ongoing national health emergency. With the funding we’ve been given we can now continue this work to maintain and improve the momentum of active travel we've gained in recent months. It will enable our residents who do not own cars to walk or cycle safely while public transport is greatly reduced. 

It’s disappointing not to have received all the funding we bid for to improve walking and cycling routes in Royal Greenwich, but we will continue to lobby and bid for more transport funding when it becomes available.”