Five local transport groups have written to Patrick McLoughlin expressing serious concerns that investment in local roads and footways, buses, cycling and walking are at great risk of large budget cuts in this autumn’s Spending Review.

 

The letter to the Transport Secretary warns that disproportionate cuts to so called ‘everyday transport’ will lead to roads falling further into disrepair, bus services seeing further service reductions and Government commitments to encourage cycling and walking being impossible to meet.

 

Signatories of the letter, including the Campaign for Better Transport chief executive Stephen Joseph, say that cuts to local services would have hugely damaging economic and social consequences. 

 

They call on Government to protect and enhance everyday transport by creating cross departmental funding programmes, rebalance capital and revenue funding and review major transport plans such as the Road Investment Strategy.

 

“Our analysis shows that the Spending Review risks hitting very hard the everyday transport that people and communities rely on, while programmes like big road building schemes will escape unscathed,” Mr Joseph said. “We hope the Transport Secretary will ensure that the Review has a better balance between the major capital programmes and the funding for everyday transport.”

 

The four other signatories of the letter to the Transport Secretary are Shaun Spiers, chief executive of the Campaign to Protect Rural England; Jon Lamonte, chairman of the Passenger Transport Executive Group; Joe Irvin, chief executive of Living Streets; and Jason Torrence, policy director of Sustrans.

 

(Photo: Alvey & Towers)