Alarm at prospect of cycle funding cuts under new government – Conservative manifesto pledges less than a quarter of current funding

Spats Bellini wrote:

... as usual the money is only spent in London

Not really, as the funding for cycling infrastructure in London goes through Transport for London which is not funded from central government coffers. 

Jetmans Dad wrote:

Spats Bellini wrote:

... as usual the money is only spent in London

Not really, as the funding for cycling infrastructure in London goes through Transport for London which is not funded from central government coffers. 

v
Well I don't know where the central funds are spent then, I see none when riding around Cheshire and Derbyshire

Jetmans Dad wrote:

Spats Bellini wrote:

... as usual the money is only spent in London

Not really, as the funding for cycling infrastructure in London goes through Transport for London which is not funded from central government coffers. 

v
Well I don't know where the central funds are spent then, I see none when riding around Cheshire and Derbyshire

Spats Bellini wrote:

Jetmans Dad wrote:

Spats Bellini wrote:

... as usual the money is only spent in London

Not really, as the funding for cycling infrastructure in London goes through Transport for London which is not funded from central government coffers. 

v
Well I don't know where the central funds are spent then, I see none when riding around Cheshire and Derbyshire

Maintainance and upgrade of existing roads are the responsibility of the local council (unless it's motorways and some A-roads which are Highways England). Councils are given a pot of cash (or more likely, they have to bid for a part of a larger "national" sum offered out by Government) and the councils put forward their costed schemes and our All-Wise Government awards cash.

So if a council has said that a particular road needs widening or a junction needs re-working for whatever reason and they reckon it'll cost £5 million, they'll get maybe £4 million with the remaining £1m to come from "other sources" like their own cash reserves or occasionally, if the new / reworked junction is providing access to a shopping mall/supermarket or new housing development, the remaining funds will come from them as part of the planning conditions.

The problem is that the funds granted are ring-fenced - they can't be spent on a bus service over here or a cycle lane over there. You've said you'll re-work the junction, re-work it.

That's why you get massive bottlenecks in the road system, it's why you get random bits of painted cycle lane that end in the middle of nowhere. Partly because the funding isn't there for it but partly because the funding you do have is ring-fenced for "Scheme X" and even if the new junction includes cycling provision, it'll stop half a mile later because that is the limit of "Scheme X". That's always been the nature of transport planning in this country. Council asks for money, they get less than they asked for (always) and then it has to be spent in a ringfenced fashion on a piecemeal scheme with no thought as to if/how it joins up anywhere else.

Throwing more money at it isn't necessarily the answer - I've long been very against the idea that you spend £5/head or £10/head or £40/head on a transport scheme and then go "ooh we're spending loads of money!" because that's no good at all if it's shit. You just end up with more shit. Come up with a GOOD design that follows the paths that cyclists want to use. Not routes that wind around every back road in town to go 2 miles, not routes that go down unlit unsurfaced canal towpaths but proper segregated infrastructure that integrates with schools, shops, residential areas, trains stations etc and that includes secure bike parking. Cost it. Then build it.

Saying that there are 50000 people in your town and £20/head is £1m and then spending £1m on tins of paint and blue "cyclists dismount" signage does not make you a cycling town or a good example of active travel provision, it means you've squandered £1m. But it's always spun as if somehow spending more money means it must be better.