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news
Norman Baker on Blackfriars Bridge courtesy Carlton Reid.jpgCTC and British Cycling welcome extra £20 million for cycling announced by Norman Baker
British Cycling and CTC have welcomed the announcement by Transport Minister Norman Baker that the government has committed a further £20 million to be spent on supporting cycling, including improving safety at junctions. Mr Baker revealed the investment at a conference in Leicester this morning, where according to CTC he also hinted that Prime Minister David Cameron would be making an announcement relating to cycling and walking early in the new year.
In a joint statement, British Cycling and CTC said that they “welcome the announcement of much-needed investment in cycling - it is encouraging to see funding being allocated to improve conditions on the road.
“We now need to see real leadership right across government to get Britain cycling. If cycling is put at the heart of transport policy - so that all decisions are made with cycling in mind - we can create a cycling nation to rival countries like Denmark.”
Today’s conference explored how local authority health and transport officials can work more closely to promote cycling and walking and coincides with today’s recommendation by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence that cycling and walking be placed at the heart of efforts to improve the nation’s health.
Mr Baker said: “Cycling is great for your health, the economy, and for the environment so we are determined to make it easier for people to cycle whether for leisure, getting to the shops or as part of their commute to work.
“Following the success of the Olympics, there is a huge appetite for more cycling provision from the travelling public and we need to capitalise on this enthusiasm at local and national level.
“That is why we are investing £20 million in cycling infrastructure and getting councils to bring an end to silo working in their offices.”
Signisficantly, part of the money is being provided from the Department of Health's budget, and Public Health Minister Anna Soubry, also at today’s conference, added: “Being active helps us stay healthy and protects against life threatening conditions such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes and certain types of cancer.
“Cycling is a great way for adults to get their recommended 150 minutes of physical activity each week and this funding will help encourage more people to get involved.”
In a written statement laid before Parliament this morning and published on the DfT’s website, Mr Baker, outlining where the £20 million would be spent, said:
The funding will increase the total available for:
The Community Linking Places Fund (in addition to the £15m announced on 7 February 2012)
Improving cycle safety at junctions (in addition to the £15m announced on 26 June 2012)
This Community Linking Places Fund is primarily for improvements to cycling and walking infrastructure, facilities and links. This includes improving access to the rail network by bicycle. In addition the fund aims to support jobs, enhance access to employment and encourage greater use of more environmentally friendly transport. Projects currently being supported were announced on 6 March 2012.
The investment in junctions - for use by English local authorities outside London - will help to tackle accident hotspots where cyclists have been killed or seriously injured, or are deemed to be at greater risk. Local authorities are currently submitting bids for funding.
Demand from local authorities, Sustrans and train operating companies, who are delivering the infrastructure, has been high. An increase of £20m to the total funding available will allow the Government to support more high quality proposals.
Details of the projects to be supported under the additional funding will be published early next year.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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14 comments
I welcome the money but it's a stronger relationship between councils and cyclists as advisors which will spend funds properly.
Where I live the local council have blocked a rat run road to cars with bollards and a large brick planter because 'we asked the residents and that's what they wanted.' Now cyclists are bouncing up 2 kerbs and riding on the pavement when the road could have had cycle access. The north Liverpool cycle network zig zags through lonely streets and canal sides - when it could run straight down the massive unused pavement on the lower dock road.
Decisions are made by the Highways department with no consultation with actual cyclists - just a little bleating from ineffectual sustrans staff and council cycling officers who have no power to coerce the council into making real progress.
We lost a tiny 10 metre stretching our local cycle lane when a ultilities company dug it up to lay cables and never put it back. Next Feb will be the 5th anniversary of first trying to get the council re pave it and the 1st anniversary of the council agreeing to do it by 'June 2012'.
It's not money but forward thinking and intelligence that are needed - both a bit lacking in my local Sefton Council I've found.
Amen! Most Highways-led changes don't seem to go through the full planning process, so we get a compendium of crap cycle lanes and farcilities. We can comment on redesigns that are developer-led (so are submitted as part of planning permission applications) or that go out to consultations, but councillors will often accept their Highways officers rather than actual user groups.
Of course, one way to fix this is to make even Highways-led layout changes go before the planning committee and allow Sustrans, CTC and cyclenation groups to register as statutory consultees. But that's new "red tape" and not the way the UK coalition government is going.
Another way would be to recruit Highways designers who understand cycling, but that's hard to do from the campaign side: our pressure is applied to the elected politicians who appoint the cabinet or committees who appoint the directors who appoint the actual designers... three degrees of separation, so it's very imprecise.
Anyone see a better way to fix this, before I get really depressed?
Throw some peanuts to the cyclists.
The Gov't expenditure for a year is £682,000 Million. £20 Million is a joke.
That's all sorted then . . .
How about £25 per person or 10% of the road and transport budget, year on year? That is what the Dutch spend and they need it a lot less than we do.
And how about making Dutch standards the British standard too, and making re-training for all highway planners compulsory?
Believe me, anything less is just tokenism and it won't make a ha'penny's difference on the ground. It would still take decades to catch up, even at Dutch levels of investment, we're so far behind.
Just for comparison, SEMMS is spending £260 million just to join up two bypasses near Manchester airport, and the cycle infrastructure around it is diabolical. Not only will £20M not go far, it will be mostly wasted by building crap.
£20 million = lip service and nothing more than the odd physical change at accident hotspots in the capital or other major cities. Don't expect any positive changes to come to your town. £20 million to get cycling where it should be in this country is a joke.
Just a shame neither CTC not British Cycling came out and said that!
They did reply on twitter to someone saying they did their usual "Thank you very much sir" but it was so forgettable that I can't... well, you get the picture.
There is a deficit in spinal qualities with some of the cycling organisations that with the current groundswell, they should be a bit more aggressive with forwarding the cause.
Its a pitiful sight when the LCC congratulates Boris after his first 100 days when he has actually done fuck all and pretty much ignored his pledge to their Go Dutch campaign. You only have to look at the amount spent on cycling in London: £73million, which is 1% or 2% of the transport budget whilst another £72 million is spent on consultants.
Unless cyclists and anyone who wants cities liveable for people (Not just for cyclists, which is a major flaw of the Times campaign), start campaigning and protesting on an ever increasing scale (as the Dutch campaign in the 70's that spawned their paradigm shift in road planning and management), nothing is going to change.
This money pledged is a drop of piss in the ocean, and a mockery of what needs to be done. It is pledged from the position that the Govt. only wants to increase the numbers of cyclists, through the flawed and dangerous thinking that there is 'safety in numbers', where the KSI statistics show a very different picture.
Until the amount spent on cycling infrastructure matches or exceeds that of other European countries, until we implement presumed liability where collisions occur, begin to treat driving as a privilege, not a god given right and jail those who drive in a criminal manner and strip the licenses of those who display an inability to drive with consideration to others, the roads in and around our cities, will become increasingly the death of us.
It's great that extra funding is being committed but let's try and keep this in perspective. £20 million isn't very much money at all by DFT standards.
http://waronthemotorist.wordpress.com/2011/12/02/what-is-missing-from-th...
It's as if basic safe transport infrastructure, is some kind of minor charitable cause like a new roof for the church hall.
It's less than £1.23 per person.
Instead of *money*, couldn't we have the Strict Liability rule introduced? We are one of the few countries in europe which doesn't have this law. I would personally feel a lot safer if I knew that that motorist who was intending to drive past me leaving just 2 inches between his car and my bike decided to leave a bit more room in the knowledge that if he did hit me, he would be presumed to be at fault in a Court.
Less than £3 per person in the UK? I shouldn't be negative and any extra is welcome but how much real difference will it make. If it means more pointless/useless cycle lanes/car parks I'd rather the money went to the NHS or Education.
Until there is proper leadership and guidlines I'm afraid a lot of all the money allocated to cycling will be "wasted" in that it will not achieve it's true potential.
IMHO
isn't it less than 30p extra surely ? otherwise 3x60 = 180 million, not 20 million :L