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Know how to boost cycling? Bristol needs YOU!

Cycling City scheme seeks project manager to help spend cash on cycling

If you think you'd know how to spend £22.8m on cycling the good folk at Bristol City Council would like to hear from you, by Wednesday.

Earlier this year the Bristol was named as the UK's first Cycling City by Cycling England seeing off competition from Leicester, Manchester, Brighton. The title came with a large wedge of government money (£11.4m – the other half has been put up by the council itself) to spend on promoting cycling in the city and surrounding areas. Six months down the line council bosses are still looking for someone to head up the project and the clock is ticking on all that funding which has to be spent by March 2011.

So far there has been a public consultation, followed by a number of complaints that the consultation wasn't public enough and that it wasn't a consultation at all simply the planners telling the public what they were going to do – build two cycle routes from the city centre to Whitchurch and St Werburghs to Lockleaze. Oh, and a hire bike scheme has been set up North Bristol.

The council advert for a project manager to head up its Cycling City efforts pretty much lays that particular criticism to rest because apart from those two routes it would appear they haven't got the foggiest idea what to do with the money… They know where they want to be, they just don't know how to get there.

Which could be where YOU come in. If you think you can oversee the creation of a large network of cycle routes, increase the number of cyclists (not a big ask in the current climate) and double the number of children cycling, then Bristol Councils wants to hear from you. Here's some more details from the ad:

"As a project manager you'll be right at the heart of things," it says.

"You'll be instrumental in establishing Bristol as a beacon for cycling. You'll be involved in showcasing best practice cycling initiatives and it'll be you that helps lead the way in changing attitudes and increasing the number of cyclists on the roads.

"Taking the lead in managing all staff, financial resource, partners, stakeholders and consultants, you'll engage their imaginations and secure their commitment to bring about major change."

Deadline for applications is Wednesday and interviews will be held in January. If you are interested there are more detail on Bristol Council's website.
 

road.cc's founder and first editor, nowadays to be found riding a spreadsheet. Tony's journey in cycling media started in 1997 as production editor and then deputy editor of Total Bike, acting editor of Total Mountain Bike and then seven years as editor of Cycling Plus. He launched his first cycling website - the Cycling Plus Forum at the turn of the century. In 2006 he left C+ to head up the launch team for Bike Radar which he edited until 2008, when he co-launched the multi-award winning road.cc - finally handing on the reins in 2021 to Jack Sexty. His favourite ride is his ‘commute’ - which he does most days inc weekends and he’s been cycle-commuting since 1994. His favourite bikes are titanium and have disc brakes, though he'd like to own a carbon bike one day.

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