London Assembly votes for an increased budget for cycling

London Assembly members have voted for a huge rise in the budget provision for cycling in 2013-14, bringing the total spend to £140 million.

A majority of LA members voted in favour of cycling receiving 2 per cent of the TfL budget in recognition of its 2 per cent modal share - increasing the budget by nearly £40 million.

The Mayor’s proposed capital budget for TfL for 2013-14 is £3,560 million, an increase of 17% on the previous year.

In a report entitled ‘Gearing Up’, the London Assembly recommended that the Mayor should allocate at least £145m to cycling in 2013-14, as it represented 2 per cent of the 2012-13 budget.

The London Cycling Campaign Chief Executive Ashok Sinha said that the Mayor now needed to press ahead with the request of the Assembly.

He said: “Following LCC’s Love London, Go Dutch campaign the Mayor promised Londoner’s world class provision for cycling. The very least he must do to make good this promise is to ensure investment in cycling at least matches – if not exceeds – the share of journeys currently made by bike in the capital”.

The 'Gearing Up' report also recommended that "The Mayor should... bring forward his target of 5 per cent cycling modal share from 2026 to 2020.... He should also establish a new target of 10 per cent cycling modal share by 2026 to reflect the Mayor’s ambition to create a ‘cycling revolution’ in London," which could mean additional funding in the future.

In terms of how individual members of the Assembly voted, all Labour, LibDem and Green Assembly members voted in favour of the budget amendment.

Speaking for the Conservative Group, which abstained on the motion, Gareth Bacon AM said that they were “not against this [amendment] in principle” and wanted to see details on how the increase could be achieved before it is put to a final vote at the end of this month.