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Scottish cycle spending takes the high road

Great Glen NCN route gets three quarters of £3.9m funding... but should money have been spent on lowland roads instead?

The Scottish Government has revealed how it plans to spend the £3.9 million it announced before Christmas was being given to cycling – and earlier celebrations at the award will be tempered by the news that more than three quarters of it will go on a route that will be of greater benefit to leisure cyclists and visitors from outside Scotland rather than cycle commuters living in the country’s major population centres.

The route in question will form part of the National Cycle Network (NCN) and runs from Oban, population a little over 8,000, to Inverness, home to around 60,000 people; the only major population centre on the route, which should be a little over one hundred miles long as it goes through the Great Glen, including skirting the shores of Loch Ness, is Fort William, which has around 10,000 residents.

The former Great Glen Cycle Route was dismantled in 2006 and while cyclists do use the Great Glen Way, primarily intended for walkers, it is unsuitable for road bikes. According to the Great Glen Way’s website, the alternative route, the A82, is best avoided as a leisure route due to heavy traffic including lorries carrying timber.

While the result of the new investment will no doubt be one of the most scenic parts of the NCN, some may find it difficult to see how the investment it aligns with the Scottish Government’s stated aim of getting 10 per cent of all journeys in Scotland made by bicycle by 2020, and will argue that the money could have been better spent elsewhere.

Prior to Christmas, Spokes, the Edinburgh and Lothians cycle campaign, had welcomed news that Scottish Finance Minister John Swinney had committed that £3.9 million to cycling, although at that point there was no hint of how the cash would actually be spent.

As Spokes pointed out at the time, the amount secured for cycling was seen as something of a coup and followed lobbying by its members, including Alison Johnstone, MSP for Lothians, who together with fellow MSP Jim Eadie, who represents Edinburgh, met Mr Swinney to plead cycling’s case.

The Scottish Government had been awarded £22 million by Chancellor George Osborne in his autumn statement, less than a third of the £74.9 million it had been seeking; crucially, however, that latter figure included £3.9 million for cycling, the exact amount that Mr Swinney subsequently confirmed he was making available, which Spokes at the time hailed as cause for celebration.

In reality, however, the money will have only minimal impact on the area that Spokes, Scotland’s largest regional cycling campaign group, covers.

Besides that £3 million for the Oban to Inverness NCN route, which also includes a spur from Appin to Oban, £400,000 will go on improving cycle parking at schools throughout the country. The other £500,000 will be spent on improving access to stations, some in West Lothian, on the new Bathgate to Airdrie rail link.

Announcing the details of how the money will be spent, Scottish Transport Minister Keith Brown said: “2012 has been a fantastic year for cycling in Scotland with our Olympic successes and this has led to a huge surge in interest in cycling both for recreation and as a way of getting around.

“So as we enter 2013 and more people think about taking up cycling with the fitness, financial and environmental benefits that brings, I am pleased to be able to announce this funding to help improve cycling infrastructure for tourists, commuters and schoolchildren in areas throughout Scotland.

“In the Highlands and Argyll & Bute, we are committing £3million to fast track the National Cycle Network route 78 between Oban and Inverness.

“The £2.6million Connon Ferry to Inverness section will be managed by Transport Scotland in partnership with Highland Council and will deliver much-needed safe cycle routes linking remote communities and taking cyclists off the trunk road network by 2015.

“The Great Glen cycle path will be an iconic route which will boost the local economy through the additional tourism in an area which already attracts over 20,000 spectators to the World Mountain Bike Championship [actually, a round of the World Cup – ed] each year in Fort William.

“We are also committing £400,000 for the Oban to Appin cycle route to link a remote community off the main Oban to Fort William section of the larger route.

“Half a million pounds will go to improving access to stations on the successful Airdrie to Bathgate railway and contribute to the “greening” of the route currently being taken forward by Central Scotland Forest Trust.

“And £400,000 will be spent on increasing cycle parking at schools, helping encourage more kids to cycle and linking to the Community Links programme delivering safe routes to schools throughout Scotland.”
 

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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11 comments

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FMOAB | 11 years ago
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I think it looks like a fantastic route, exactly the kind of thing the Scottish Government should be doing.

If commuting infrastructure is to be sustainable, it needs be provided and maintained by local government. Previous ring-fenced money provided to local government seems to have been spent on painting bits of road green/red/blue (according to the area you live in) with road planners then being surprised that the cycle "network" diminished as utility companies etc dug up the roads but didn't bother painting them. A real case of quantity over quality.

Rant over, now when's that route due for completion, I want to ride it  1

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notfastenough | 11 years ago
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Looks like an awesome weekend. Train to oban or inverness on saturday, stay over and have a few drinks, ride the route on sunday then train home.

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Squiggle | 11 years ago
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It's a bit like when your missus gives you £50 for the weekly shop and you spend it on some Assos socks and new bartape.  39

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Daclu Trelub | 11 years ago
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9/10ths of the time it will be utterly deserted and wind-swept. Great use of public money, not.

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offshore_dave | 11 years ago
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There's some ungrateful whingeing going on here.

I think its a fantastic route and we should make the most of it.

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Gkam84 replied to offshore_dave | 11 years ago
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offshore_dave wrote:

There's some ungrateful whingeing going on here.

I think its a fantastic route and we should make the most of it.

I don't think anyone is being ungrateful, its government money after all.

Its how its being spent, no even spread across the country, just a lump going to one part, when so many others are in need of it.

The route was only scrapped in 2006, 6 years later they are pumping millions in to get it going again.....2019....rip it to bits again??

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offshore_dave replied to Gkam84 | 11 years ago
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John Swinney should have kept his money in his pocket.

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jollygoodvelo | 11 years ago
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Looks a brilliant route for a holiday. Train up to Inverness, bike down to Oban and back, magic.

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OldRidgeback | 11 years ago
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Scotland needs tourism for sure, but I doubt many tourists will be drawn by a new cycleroute in the Highlands. About 80% of Scotland's population lives in the Central Belt in the area between Edinburgh and Glasgow and that also attracts a lot of tourists anyway. You'd have thought it'd make more sense to spend the money there.

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Pitstone Peddler | 11 years ago
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Scotland needs tourism. Id like to come up and cycle that route. In equal balance, all of the cities of Scotland (and England/Wales) need investment for cyclists to be safely catered for when commuting, £3.9m wont even touch that.

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Gkam84 | 11 years ago
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Although nothing was ever going to come to my area, our paths are not so bad being part of the Sustrans National Route 195.

I am surprised nothing is going into developing some sort of infrastructure in Glasgow in time for 2014. Even just one cycle lane somewhere.....

Spokes WILL be pissed, they did most of the lobbying to get some money for cycling in Scotland and to see almost all of it going to the Highlands will be a sickener. Its only going to benefit tourists who are cycling the west Highland way and that sort of area  39

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