The British government announced that eight cities in the country will be able to spend £114 million for making easier for people to get around in 2 wheels. ECF member CTC welcomes the decision, however says that there will be disappointments too.

Tejvan Pettinger/Cycling Oxford/Flickr

On 2 March, British Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg announced that the government has allocated more than £110 million for the winners of the second wave of Cycling City Ambition funding. The money will be used to help each city deliver plans to get more people cycling by improving and expanding cycle routes between the city centres, local communities and key employment and retail spots. Manchester, Birmingham and Leeds will get the most money – 22 million individually – but Bristol is also not far behind them and Cambridge, Norwich, Newcastle and Oxford will also receive millions.

According to the British government this money can help Britain become a cycling nation to rival the likes of Denmark and the Netherlands. Clegg said, research also shows that boosting cycling could save billions of pounds otherwise spent on healthcare, reduce pollution and congestion, and create a happier and safer population. Cycling minister Robert Goodwill also expressed a desire to achieve the same level of funding in other parts of England too.

Cities receiving funding are also optimistic about the project. For example in Manchester these funds will allow to build upon the work already under way to make cycling a mainstream option for everyone, regardless of age or ability. “We have set ourselves an ambitious target – 10 percent of all journeys to be made by bicycle by 2025", said Councillor Andrew Fender, Chair of the Transport for Greater Manchester Committee.

What is the stance of the cycling community?

ECF’s British member CTC welcomes the allocation of the funding but is worth noting that the it is largely a re-warming of a previous announcement made back in November last year. Sam Jones, Campaigns and Communications Coordinator at CTC said, three years of committed funding will undoubtedly be welcomed by these eight cities, and rightly so as they have campaigned hard to secure it. Jones told ECF that however for the rest of the country, there will be disappointment, particularly from rural areas and cities with real cycling ambition such as Brighton, Nottingham and Leicester which have been shockingly ignored.

“We now need to see all the UK’s political parties committing themselves to £10 per head, rising to £20, for all the country and not just 8 cities. CTC in the run up to and beyond the General Election will be campaigning to make sure that the recently introduced Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy will have real teeth in the form of real funding”, added the organisation’s Campaigns and Communications Coordinator.

About the author

Gergely Nagy is a Communications Intern at ECF taking care of ecf.com pages and he likes to explore each city, especially the markets, with a bike.