Open letter to Southampton City Council

Southampton Street Space is a newly formed campaign calling for the council to make our streets safe for residents to walk, wheel, shop and cycle. They have written an open letter to Southampton City Council welcoming the measures in the Green Transport Recovery Plan; to provide safe space for active travel and city centre shopping. They are calling on the council to go further when government funding becomes available, and roll out the following measures across the city:

1. Provide safe space for people walking/shopping/socialising on high streets – particularly outside shops and cafes, using bollards/planters to widen footways with a 20mph speed limit. Businesses have contacted us saying they want restrictions on traffic/parking so they can provide more outside seating to customers – this is crucial to our city’s economic recovery.
2. Create a comprehensive network of ‘Active Travel Corridors’ on main roads connecting with the existing ‘pop-up lanes’ to provide safe, direct access for people travelling on bikes, scooters, skateboards, mobility chairs, hoverboards etc.
3. Create a network of Low Traffic Neighbourhoods with cars prevented from speeding through residential streets, using planters or bollards, that open residential and local shopping streets for communities to play, walk, cycle and socialise on.