An Important Letter

With the current government spending cuts, there is a danger that the provision of cycling facilities will lose out, and in particular that Cycling England, who have done a fantastic job in promoting cycling, will have it's funding cut.
This open letter has been sent by Tony Roelich of Derby Cycling Group to Norman Baker MP and others who will be making these important decisions.



Derby Cycling Group,
c/o 126, Station Road,
Mickleover,
Derby,
DE3 9FN

28th September, 2010
An open letter to the Rt Hon Philip Hammond MP,

Cc: Rt Hon Norman Baker MP
Rt Hon Chris Williamson MP
Rt Hon Margaret Beckett MP

Dear Mr Hammond,

I am writing to you because I am very concerned about the future of Cycling England in the current spending review. In my opinion this organisation is absolutely essential to the successful development of cycling as a primary means of transport in this country. I believe this is really important because cycling levels such as those attained in Germany and Denmark, never mind in Holland, would be a huge benefit to the health and fitness of the average person in this country with consequent savings to the NHS. It would also make a significant contribution to reducing traffic congestion and its associated pollution and in the current economic climate the money saved by travelling more by bicycle can help many families to make ends meet. I cannot think of any serious disadvantages from cycle transport developing on a large scale and Cycling England has proved that this large scale development can happen here.

I am a cycle campaigner from Derby, representing the Derby Cycling Group which has over 300 members. Derby is one of Cycling England’s Cycle Demonstration Towns, focusing on getting young people cycling. Cycling in the town has increased by 29% between 2005 and 2008. This figure is comparable to the increases witnessed in other countries during their own cycling revivals. At schools across the city hundreds of children now cycle to primary school everyday. In my own son’s school, where no child had ever cycled before, 40% of the children cycled in during the very first cycle-to-school-week which the local cycle project organised. This demonstrates that children are really keen to cycle, and their parents want them to as well. However, day-on-day, as a regular and frequent event, parents are not willing to take the school-ride. Partly it is about fitting in with current life-styles, but also partly because people do not consider the roads safe enough. This country does not provide enough cycle-friendly routes for people to feel confident, and empowered to cycle. Cycling England has however demonstrated that the demand is there, we now need to feed it and Cycling England does that as well, on several fronts:

Cycle infrastructure design is an immature science in the UK. Routes are often designed by people who do not cycle and this has lead to some very poor facilities. Recently Cycling England ran a week workshops for our city council highway engineers, promoting their best practice cycle infrastructure design standards, so the quality of the facilities the council creates can be improved. If Cycling England were abandoned, where else can local authorities get their knowledge to maximise the benefit of their investment in cycle routes?

Cycling England’s Bikeability cycle training is a fantastic scheme and much needed for many years. It is leading to ever increasing numbers of children cycling to school regularly and gives people of all ages real confidence to get out and ride more and feel safe – indeed to be safe.

Cycling England’s budget has improved over the past two or three years but it is still tiny compared to spending on roads, rail and bus services and remains the only service dedicated specifically to cycling. Scrapping or even downsizing just one or two projects from any of these other sectors would provide the same savings as scrapping Cycling England. In comparison to most road and rail projects, cycling projects provide massively more return on investment because they create benefits on many fronts; not only do they increase cycling per se, but they also reducing the costs of health, pollution, congestion and wear and tear on roads. Cycling England also supports the growth of cycling at a local level, empowering local authorities to develop cycle projects that will be useful and therefore used by people, maximising their return on investment. I am concerned that in rolling cycling up under the “sustainable transport” banner we will see budgets consumed by more capital intensive public transport schemes.

I urge you to retain Cycling England as the practical organisation which is today, providing thought leadership and best practice in cycle transport. As a cycle campaign group who have been frustrated at the slow development and sometimes poor quality of cycling facilities over many years, Cycling England has been a breath of fresh air to us; these people understand the unique requirements of cycling and are the catalyst for the promotion of best practice throughout the country.

In the spending review, please leave Cycling England to continue its great work and take savings from less effective organisations elsewhere.


Yours sincerely,




Tony Roelich
Campaigns Co-ordinator
Derby Cycling Group