The only motor vehicles allowed to use the bridge between 7am and 7pm on Mondays to Fridays will be buses, taxis and motorcycles.

Transport for London's head of healthy streets Sam Monck said: “Enabling more people to walk and cycle is absolutely vital to London’s recovery from Coronavirus, which is why we are extending some of the existing restrictions to London Bridge as part of our Streetspace programme.”

A TfL spokesman added that the Streetspace scheme over the bridge will effectively extend an existing scheme in Bishopsgate, allowing more people to walk and cycle from London Bridge station towards the City without having to take the Underground. London Bridge closed to general traffic in March to allow maintenance and waterproofing to take place.

Streetspace schemes are introduced through temporary or emergency traffic orders and can run for up to 18 months. Transport for London will monitor the impact of the London Bridge scheme and work with local communities and businesses to understand how these changes impact on them before making any decision on whether the restriction should be made permanent.

Welcoming the continued restrictions to motor traffic using London Bridge, Arup transport planner and Living Streets vice president Susan Claris FCIHT said: “During lockdown we saw pollution falling by up to 50% in London, but we now have congestion levels in outer London higher than they were before lockdown. We need better space for walking and cycling as this brings benefits to people and places in terms of the economy, health and the environment.”

London Cycling Campaign's infrastructure campaigner Simon Munk also welcomed the ongoing restrictions and said that closure of the bridge to general traffic for maintenance this year helped to reduce congestion and make the crossing safer for those on two wheels.

But the freight group Logistics UK described the decision to continue restricting vehicle movements during the day as ‘a final blow to the capital's recovering logistics sector’.

Head of urban policy Natalie Chapman said: “The bridge provides essential connectivity into London; suitable river crossings for freight are few and far between. By banning these vehicles it forces commercial drivers to take significant detours which, in addition to reducing productivity, will increase localised congestion and air pollution as traffic clusters to the remaining river crossings.”

(Photograph: chrisdorney - Shutterstock)