Towns in North Somerset have been awarded an additional £473,750 from the Government to introduce permanent routes for walking and cycling and socially-distanced environments.

The funding is part of a national £175million grant from the Department for Transport (DfT), which will see new safe routes for people to walk and cycle safely built in 2021.

North Somerset Council has already introduced temporary measures, with wider pavements for effective social distancing and pop-up cycle routes to help safe travel.

The new permanent schemes, which will be completed next year, will include several school schemes that offer safe cycling and walking routes to school for children and parents, improvements to Hill Road and The Beach in Clevedon, with a one-way system to allow better pedestrian access and cycling and establishing a quiet lanes network of cycle and pedestrian routes between Yatton, Clevedon and Nailsea, while maintaining essential and farm accesses.

In Weston, a cycling corridor will be created in Baker Street and Milton Road and a 20mph limit will also be introduced to prevent the rat-running of cars and offering better links from residential areas to the town centre.

A segregated cycling route over Hildesheim Bridge to Weston town centre will also be completed next year.

The council has already added disabled parking bays to The Esplanade in Portishead this year so that people with disabilities can enjoy the seafront.

Cllr James Tonkin, the council's executive member for transport, said: “This funding recognises the important role active travel will play in the next phase of Covid-19 and supports the increase in active travel and walking we have seen this year.

“Introducing better routes for people to walk and cycle to enable work, education or leisure is an essential part of the economic recovery of our region and we are delighted that we have secured this additional funding to allow us to introduce these schemes and create safer environments for our visitors, residents and businesses.

“This council is committed to creating more opportunities for sustainable travel and reducing carbon emissions and these schemes will also support those important goals.”