Eight city regions will share £77M to introduce measures to make roads safer for cycling, the Government has announced. New funds for cycling between now and 2015 are said to total £148M, including local contributions.

Greater Manchester will receive £20M, West Yorkshire (Leeds and Bradford) has been promised £18.1M and Birmingham £17M. The five other areas to receive cash will be the West of England (Bristol and Bath), Newcastle, Cambridge, Norwich and Oxford.

Government added that investment in cycling in the eight cities now exceeds £10 per head as recommended by a recent report by the All Party Parliamentary Cycle Group.

Prime Minister David Cameron said: “We want to make it easier and safer for people who already cycle as well as encouraging far more people to take it up.”

But Labour’s Shadow Transport Secretary Maria Eagle said: “No amount of cynical spin from David Cameron will make up for the fact that, immediately on taking office, he axed Cycle England, the Cycle Demonstration Towns scheme and the annual £60M budget to support cycling that he inherited.”

The Cycling Embassy of Great Britain, which promotes bicycle use, was not impressed with the headline figures. Its chairman Mark Treasure said: “This is merely a continuation of the intermittent and piecemeal way in which cycling infrastructure has been funded, with tens of millions released, here and there, over the last three years. In the grand scheme of things, it's a tiny amount, and won't even scratch the surface.”

(Photo: Transport for Greater Manchester)

To return to the newsletter, please close this window.