The future of the Blackfriars bridge is once again a hot topic at London City Hall.

At a Civic Works Committee meeting on Tuesday, members of the community were mostly in favour of keeping cars off the bridge permanently during a public participation meeting – but some members of council were worried about keeping the downtown core accessible to motor vehicles.

A staff report outlined three options for the bridge. Keep it open to eastbound motor vehicle traffic, keep the bridge open to motor vehicle traffic in the winter months, and permanently close the bridge to motor vehicle traffic permanently.

14 people spoke at the meeting, and all but three were in favour of removing cars for at least a portion of the year.

“I think it’s irresponsible to open the bridge right now given a couple of considerations. Number one, our stated climate emergency,” said councillor Sam Trosow. “And the threat to public safety with this vehicular traffic. This is going to have costs. This is not good policy.”

A motion was put on the floor to keep the bridge open to motor vehicle traffic as it is currently, and have a long term use study submitted to the province. That motion passed at committee 4-1 with councillors Corrine Rahman, Hadleigh McAlister, Peter Cuddy, and Paul Van Meerbergen voting in favour. Trosow was opposed.

“We have a lot of road work, a lot of infrastructure work [in the downtown] right now, and necessarily so,” said Deputy Mayor Shawn Lewis, who isn’t on the committee. “Until the rapid transit downtown loop is finished and the rapid transit is up and running, I am not interested in taking away access point opportunities for people to come downtown.”

Lewis said he would be open to making changes to the types of traffic allowed on the bridge in the future.

Councillors will have another chance to weigh in at their June 27th meeting.