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Green Party questions Sheffield’s commitment to cycling after city misses out on government funding

Recent CTC survey ranked the city bottom for the number of councillors supporting its Space for Cycling campaign

Sheffield spent almost £900,000 on hosting the finish of the second stage of this year’s Tour de France and hoped the race would bring £15 million in direct and indirect revenue to the area’s economy. However, local cyclists have been left wondering why cycling itself doesn’t seem to be benefiting after the city missed out on the £214m of funding recently announced by the government.

CTC recently ranked eight major cities according to the number of councillors supporting its Space for Cycling campaign and Sheffield came bottom. The Star reports that city councillors feel that is ‘misleading’ but the Green Party are demanding action. They will put forward a motion highlighting how Sheffield City Council only spends £1.89 per person to support cycling, while many other cities – including Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham and Bristol – spend in excess of £10 per person.

Councillor Sarah-Jane Smalley, Green spokesperson on Cycling, said:

“You really have to question whether there’s a genuine commitment to change when the people designing our roads aren’t properly trained, and the Council isn’t bidding for grants to create a surge in cycling”.

Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg – who is also the Member of Parliament for Sheffield Hallam – recently announced that £114m of cycling funding was to be made available for eight cities, yet Sheffield is not among them. Clegg blamed Labour councillors for this.

“After the huge success of the Tour, there is a huge appetite from local people to take up cycling. The rewards of encouraging more people to cycle could be massive. In Government, we have put the money down and asked local authorities to jump on their bikes and get us to the finish line. Unfortunately local Labour councillors didn’t even enter Sheffield into the race.”

Councillor Leigh Bramall responded by saying:

“There was no opportunity for us to bid for this funding. We would have welcomed the opportunity to make improvements to our cycling network based on the extensive review we conducted into cycling but the Government has not given us this opportunity.”

Sheffield Council has also emphasised that it has its own cycle strategy, pointing to the only inner-city mountain bike course and the recent installation of free on-street bike pumps.

Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.

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rhodrigo27 | 9 years ago
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I am sure Sheffield City Council does have its own bike strategy. I am sure it involves City developers with no knowledge of how people cycle, making decisions they think are good ones. This can be seen with the number of silly bike lanes and complex cycle junctions being placed throughout the city.

When it comes to the free on street bike pumps, there are 10 across the city centre. They are not well advertised although they claim to be on 'popular' cycling routes, Oh and they cost £11,000 ........

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Paulnrswain | 9 years ago
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I am guessing that putting in a pump is about the cheapest bit of cycling "infrastructure" a council can do, as it's essentially just a bollard.

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Paulnrswain | 9 years ago
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I am guessing that putting in a pump is about the cheapest bit of cycling "infrastructure" a council can do, as it's essentially just a bollard.

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severs1966 | 9 years ago
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Of course! The only thing holding back the "cycling revolution" is a lack of pumps! If only we'd known this in 1986.

In other stating-the-bleeding-obvious discoveries, have a think about the phrase "Sheffield spent almost £900,000 on [...] this year’s TdF and hoped the race would bring £15 million [...] to the area’s economy."

It was all about money. Nothing to do with cycling in Sheffield. If they'd held a Grand Prix, would you expect it to change driving in the city? If they'd held a marathon, would it be expected to improve the situation for pedestrians?

The same applies to all the locations in England where the TdF went. It wasn't about people riding bikes from one place to another, it was about municipal prestige.

"Sheffield Council has also emphasised that it has its own cycle strategy"

That will be one of those do-nothing-at-all-and-sod'em strategies, like most cities have.

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HarrogateSpa | 9 years ago
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I'm not against free on-street bike pumps, but they miss the point. We know that people will cycle if they feel safe doing so, and high quality, separate bike lanes make them feel safe.

Pumps should be a tiny footnote to page 117 of your cycling strategy, not one of the headlines.

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