The government’s cycling strategy has been branded a ‘derisory’ plan by a cycling charity.
CTC said the draft Cycling Delivery Plan fails to make a firm commitment to provide extra funding for cycling. The plan refers to achieving a ‘funding package’ of £10 per head per year, but the charity says there is no information on how this will be raised.
Paul Tuohy, chief executive of CTC, said: ‘This is a derisory plan not a delivery plan. The Prime Minister’s ‘cycling revolution’ with its Penny Farthing budget is going nowhere unless the Chancellor finds funding for cycling in his Autumn Statement. Cycling needs at least £10 a head if we are even to begin catching up with German, Dutch or Danish levels of cycle use.
‘If we can afford long term strategies for our roads and railways, why not for cycling? Given its huge benefits to the economy and the environment, our waistlines and our wallets, it is surely foolish not to.’
The charity also pointed to new research, conducted by Robin Lovelace (University of Leeds) and James Woodcock (University of Cambridge), that shows meeting the Get Britain Cycling report’s targets for increased cycle use could be worth as much as £6bn annually by 2025 in health benefits alone.
