Government's draft cycling and walking investment strategy derided as "laughable"

Cycling infrastructure: needs funding, say campaigners

Cycling infrastructure: needs funding, say campaigners

The Government's launch of its draft walking and cycling investment strategy over the Easter weekend was immediately met with derision in the press and by campaigners.

In the draft ministers hail the "great progress" made on cycling in the last government and set out how they will build on this with £300m of funding with the aim of doubling cycling activity and reverse a decline in walking by 2025. But Chris Boardman, British Cycling policy advisor, told the press that the funding was "frankly embarrassing", British Cycling saying in a detailed response that at best the U.K would reach 3.5% of trips by 2025.

Julian Huppert, the Lib Dem former chair of the All Party Parliamentary Cycling Group was "gutted" there was "so little investment," which the CTC said amounted to only £1.38 per person in England in total, and The Guardian added that it was "laughable" and "outrageous" given the need to improve safety.

Ministers maintained that the £300m dedicated to cycling in the Parliament will be supplemented by monies from:

• The £12bn local growth fund, of which around £600m has been allocated to cycling;
• £3.8bn highway maintenance funding, of which nine per cent will allocated according to the the length of footways and cycleways;
• The £1.3bn integrated transport block and £258m for capital works to improve road safety and tackle congestion;
• Devolved funding including £913m for Transport for London;
• Funding donated by private companies or secured through planning agreements, which they say generated £335,000 in Derby alone;
• The NHS's 'healthy new towns' and from local authority public health budgets

But British Cycling said that other priorities such as road maintenance, saving bus routes and new housing development would put cycling and walking "at the bottom of most councils' to-do lists".