The government, under the auspices of Active Travel England (ATE), provided an update on the 19 May 2023 entitled “Millions of people to benefit from £200 million to improve walking and cycling routes”, identifying the funding allocations of the scheme announced on 6 February 2023, £200 million to improve walking and cycling routes and boost local economies. The grand claims include; expecting to generate up to 16 million more walking and cycling trips a year, create 120 miles of cycle track, 77 miles of new paths and greenways, 130 more schemes to help over 35,000 children on their way to school and boost health and grow the economy.
Chris Boardman commented “Now our focus is working with councils to get these schemes built swiftly. We’ll be working together to ensure the projects are well-designed and effective, so that they bring maximum benefits to communities and help improve lives nationwide.”
The commentary states “The winning projects have demonstrated they provide people with attractive choices to use cycling and walking for local journeys” and “Local authorities have worked closely with local people to ensure the schemes benefit the community as a whole.” These are some of the criteria that ATE were assessing in the review of authorities capabilities. Also commenting “Safety and accessibility will be at the heart of improvements and creation of walking and cycling routes, meaning safety for women and children walking to school will be improved, and people in wheelchairs and mobility scooters will see street designs become even more inclusive.”
A table provides details of how the funding was allocated to the authorities, now it will come as no surprise that Derby City only received £140,000 (capability level 1) while, most surprisingly, Derbyshire County Council (level 1) received £3,005,000. Intrigued by these allocations I calculated the average sum for the respective capability levels: the average for level 1 is £663,423 with level 2 average being £3,172,876 and level 3 average of £11,464,131. We can draw from this that Derby City did pretty poorly, third from the bottom, while the lowest allocation went to the Isle of Scilly with only 9 miles of roads. Meanwhile Derbyshire received the maximum for level 1. Our level 3 neighbours Nottingham received £1,762,288 and Leicester £1,800,000, lowest allocation for level 3 authorities.
On Monday 22 May 2023 the local BBC news reported that Derbyshire County Council received funding to transform the 3.5 mile disused railway between Little Eaton and Rawson Green to become a route for cyclists, walkers, runners and horse riders with £2.7 million government grant. We have previously reported on the Little Eaton Branch Line Transformation. The route will form a new ‘greenway’ stretch, part of the cycle route from Derby to Ripley. The county council also secured funding of £300,000 to draw up plans for the White Peak Loop cycle route into Buxton town centre.
As ATE previously promised funding is dependant on the authorities demonstrating leadership, consulting with communities, training and up skilling staff, developing challenging projects that provide routes between meaningful destinations and ensure projects are delivered to the requirements of LTN 1/20, Cycle Infrastructure Design. The capability scoring does not seem to preclude good projects being funded such as Derbyshire’s Little Eaton greenway. The authorities allocated the greatest funding have a clear strategy for the network they intend to develop and a skilled team to implement those plans, the top four beneficiaries Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, Liverpool and West Midlands who between them obtained £68 million (more than a third of total funding). The attributes required by ATE not only ensure the funds achieve the best outcomes but also form basis of good practice for community projects. Thus building a good relationship with ATE and taking on board their advice will be essential for funding future projects.