Get Britain Cycling report set for parliamentary debate

The Get Britain Cycling report, published in April following a six-week Parliamentary Inquiry, is set to be debated in the House of Commons.

Dr Julian Huppert, co-chair of the All Party Parliamentary Cycling Group which hosted the inquiry, asked for a debate yesterday at the Backbench Business Committee yesterday and was told it was “supportive” of the approach, reports The Times.

The debate is likely to take place in the coming weeks, adds the newspaper, whose journalist Kaya Burgess set up a petition on a government website to urge Prime Minister David Cameron to fully embrace the report.

That petition is still around 30,000 short of the 100,000 signatories it would have needed for the issue to be considered for debate, but that now seems to have been rendered academic point.

Reacting to the news, Jason Torrance, policy director at Sustrans, who gave evidence at the inquiry, said: “It is fantastic see the recommendations of the Get Britain Cycling report being debated in Parliament but it is important that this results in clear outcomes, not just rhetoric.

"To reach the ambitious goals for cycling we need a combination of investment, infrastructure and policy change.
“Increasing levels of cycling will ease pressure on the NHS, cut congestion and help make the UK one of the cleanest, healthiest and most pleasant places to live in the world.”

The Get Britain Cycling report calls for:

• 10 per cent of all journeys to be made by bicycle by bicycle by 2025 rising to 25 per cent by 2050

• Government funding for cycling should start at a minimum of £10 per head

• Cycling should be considered at an earlier stage in all planning decisions, whether transport schemes or new houses or businesses

• More use should be made of segregated cycle lanes, learning from the Dutch experience

• Urban speed limits should generally be reduced to 20 mph

• Just as children learn to swim at school, they should learn to ride a bike

• The Government should produce a detailed cross-departmental Cycling Action Plan, with annual progress reports.