The Esplanade road running through Lerwick town centre is to be turned into a 20mph zone in an effort to reduce the accident rate and make it more pedestrian-friendly.
Members of Shetland Islands Council’s environment and transport committee pushed the plans through on Tuesday morning.
Traffic calming and other improvements will be made along the Esplanade and Commercial Road between Annsbrae and North Ness as the local authority strives to make the town centre “a more pedestrian demand led environment”.
Councillors also approved officials’ plans to consult on extending and amending the pedestrianisation of Commercial Street – Lerwick’s historic shopping district – and the short-stay parking zone in the town centre.
A report from SIC traffic and road safety engineer Colin Gair said the total cost of the changes was estimated at £234,000.
National transport body SUSTRANS will stump up £168,000, a Scottish Government grant will cover £25,000 and the remaining £41,000 will come from within the council’s existing budget.
No committee members opposed the 20mph zone, but council leader Gary Robinson’s amendment suggesting that the consultation on pedestrianisation be abandoned was defeated by five votes to three.
Robinson said he had representations “suggesting there isn’t a huge amount of support for that from anybody, be it businesses or potential shoppers on that part of the street”, and “frankly I think we are wasting our time with a consultation process”.