Tania Mathias – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tania Mathias on 2015-12-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what budget his Department has allocated for cycling-related road improvements in each of the next five years.

Mr Robert Goodwill

The Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy, to be published in summer 2016, will set out the Government’s plans for investing in cycling and walking.

The Government recently reaffirmed its commitment to cycling and walking, with SR2015 announcing funding support ofover £300m. This includes delivering the £114m Cycle City Ambition programme in full, which includes improved cycling infrastructure on roads, and a new ‘Access’ fund for sustainable travel building on the legacy of the Local Sustainable Transport Fund. In addition, the Road Investment Strategy for 2015-20 includes plans to improve 200 sections of the roads network for cyclists. All other funding streams will be considered as part of the process for developing the Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy.

It is also worth noting that from within the record £6 billion to be allocated to local highways authorities between 2015 and 2021 for road maintenance, from 2018/19 the plan is to change the formula used to allocate local highways maintenance capital funding so that it also takes into account footways and cycleways as well as the roads, bridges and street lighting, which it is currently based on. Once implemented, around 9% of the funding will be based on footway and cycleway lengths.

SR2015 also announced an additional £250m for a potholes action fund, which will benefits both motorists and cyclists.