Leeds and Manchester each seeking £20m from DfT's £30m Cycle City Ambition fund

Leeds and Manchester are each bidding for up to £20 million in Cycle City Ambition funding from the Department for Transport, with the deadline for bids being next Tuesday, 30 April – but they will be competing with other cities throughout England for a share of the £30 million on offer.

According to the Yorkshire Evening Post, Leeds, which is preparing to host the Grand Départ of next year’s Tour de France, plans to create what is described as an “east-west super cycleway” across the city and extending to Bradford.

Plans, which also envisage more cycling infrastructure within Leeds city centre as well as resurfacing of the Leeds & Liverpool canal towpath, are due to be outlined to an executive board meeting of Metro, the passenger transport authority for the West Yorkshire region, today.

Across the Pennines, Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) says that if its bid is successful, it will spend most of the money on “a series of more continental-style, largely segregated, cycle routes within the heart of the conurbation, together with the delivery of a number of cycle and ride stations.

It adds that “to get more people on their bikes using these new facilities, we’ll deliver a programme of promotion and engagement designed to trigger a generational shift that has the potential to ‘mainstream’ cycling.”

TfGM is asking cyclists to show their support for its aim to transform levels of cycling in Manchester and the surrounding areas for which it is responsible by clicking a button on the dedicated Velocity page of its website.

Birmingham, Bristol, Norwich and Nottingham are among other ciies in England bidding for Cycle City Ambition funding under the initiative announced by transport minister Norman Baker in January.