MP slams West of England Mayor over lack of active travel spend

An MP has slammed the West of England Mayor over what she claims is a lack of spending on active travel, including cycling.

In 2017, Conservative politician Tim Bowles became the first directly-elected mayor for the West of England, which comprises the local authority areas of Bristol, South Gloucestershire, and Bath and North East Somerset.

His responsibility in the role include drawing up the combined authority’s strategy for transport, planning and skills.

But he Liberal Democrat MP for Bath, Wera Hobhouse, says that since being elected he has done nothing for active travel in the region, reports SomersetLive.

Bowles, however, insists that he has spent £123 million on sustainable travel since taking office – although most of that has gone on public transport.

Hobhouse said: “Tory Tim Bowles received some £80million as part of the [Department for Transport’s] Transforming Cities Fund two years ago.

“This money is to improve the region’s sustainable transport. So far he has spent absolutely nothing on walking and cycling infrastructure.

“The local council has projects ready to go, and now has encouragement from Transport Minister Grant Shapps.

“All we get from Tim Bowles is dither and delay,” Hobhouse continued. “No vision, just the offer that he will chair another meeting in the latter half of June. He is letting the whole region down.

“Considering that the Government is also urging people to avoid public transport for some considerable time, a message that Tim Bowles himself passed on to the region’s businesses, it is bizarre in the extreme that he continues to hoard the money Government has already given us.”

She urged Bowles to release £5 million to each of the three local authorities that make up the region to enable them to put emergency cycling and walking infrastructure in place to help with social distancing.

The mayor countered by saying that the combined authority would give £3 million to the three local authorities pending receipt of that sum from the government, and that he would make a further £10 million of funding available to them “so that we can get on with building that legacy.”

He said: “I’m getting on with investing in the West of England’s places and people. Whether that’s working with our councils, including B&NES Council, to fully allocate all of our Transforming Cities Fund money to projects that will deliver sustainable travel improvements for the region, or developing our Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plan so we can get the funding we need from Government.”

In a swipe at the Bath MP’s current bid for the leadership of the Liberal Democrats, he said: “The West of England needs people who get things done, rather than using it as a stepping stone for other jobs.”

Bowles insisted: “I’ve invested more than £123million in sustainable travel right across the region since I became mayor.

“Those projects have seen public and active transport properly brought together so that the changes we’re making are much more impactful than simple piecemeal works.”

Last week, we reported how South Gloucestershire Council had removed a pop-up cycle lane in Filton after just five days following complaints that it had caused traffic jams.

> Pop-up cycle lane in Filton scrapped after just FIVE days following complaints it caused traffic jams

Earlier this year, in its response to a consultation on the West of England Combined Authority’s  Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plan (LCWIP), Sustrans noted that “detail is lacking” regarding how certain routes had been prioritised as well as how much they would cost.

The Bristol-based charity also said: “In some regards, the LCWIP feels like one step forward – we now have pre-feasibility detail for schemes across the West of England which places the sub-region in a better position to direct revenue funding to work up the detail to strategic outline business case stage.

“In others, the LCWIP feels like two steps back – we have lost the concept of strategic walking and cycling networks established in previous policies. Whilst the LCWIP will no-doubt be an evolving document as schemes are completed, that evolution process will not be quick, or agile enough to tackle the climate emergency.

“We would like to see the restoration of strategic walking and cycling networks commensurate with the scale of the challenges the sub-region faces,” it added.