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"Shameful" - London Lib Dem leader's verdict as Boris Johnson admits huge cycling underspend

TfL insists money will be carried over - but only £29 million spent in 2014/15, against budget of £82 million

Mayor of London Boris Johnson has admitted that the spending on cycling in the capital during the 2014/15 financial year will, at £29 million, be little more than a third of the £82 million budgeted. 

That latter figure, confirmed last October, was itself a reduction from the original amoun of £109 million as a result of cost savings on the city’s cycle hire scheme and the “re-phasing” of infrastructure projects aimed at making the streets safer for people on bikes, reports the London Evening Standard.

The revelation was contained in a written answer to Caroline Pidgeon, leader of the London Assembly’s Liberal Democrats, who had asked Mr Johnson to confirm how much of the budget was being spent, and condemned the reply as "shameful."

It comes nearly a year after Sir Peter Hendy, commissioner of Transport for London, described similar underspends in previous years as “an embarrassment” as he was being grilled on the issue at City Hall.

Sir Peter said last March in response to a question from Green Party assembly member Darren Johnson, who has regularly criticised underspending on cycling, that TfL was under pressure from the mayor to “get some stuff on the ground.

Responding to the mayor’s confirmation of how much had been spend in the current year, Ms Pidgeon said it was “simply shameful that year after year TfL repeatedly spend just a fraction of their allocated budget on vital improvements to junctions and investing in cycling infrastructure.”

But a spokesman for TfL told the Standard that money not used this year would be rolled over into the budget for the following financial year.

He added that some £160 million of infrastructure is due to be completed this year and next, including the two Cycle Superhighways running through the centre of the capital, and CS1 from Tottenham to the City.

Work on the East-West and North-South routes, given the go-ahead by TfL’s board last month, will start in the next few weeks. The projects were delayed by a lengthy consultation process that was concluded late last year.

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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9 comments

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Airzound | 9 years ago
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Disgusting. So they are sitting on a pot of cash ear marked for cycling which they are not spending, meanwhile cyclists are being killed and seriously injured because of dangerous road layouts or traffic signalling. Fuckers.

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ianrobo | 9 years ago
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One thing to say is the budget is massive and the big issue is separation and the problem ? London roads are generally narrow ...

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Mystery Machine | 9 years ago
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The main issue with London infrastructure projects seems to be generating the sufficient political will to overcome the dinosaurs objecting to the changes, whether they are TfL bus overlords, old-men-in-limo-friendly boroughs like Westminster and Kensington & Chelsea, or NIMBYs not wanting to lose the privilege of leaving their personal property (motor vehicles) on the public highway.

Maybe one way of using the underspent funds (leaving aside the prospect of simply (counter?) bribing councillors at the non-cooperative boroughs to get on board with infra plans) would be to pay off people whose properties are on the streets where lanes need to go in, in order to sweeten the deal of having parking removed. If it helps to clear a common political logjam by easing the issue of removal of current parking provision, which is preventing the implementation of proper infrastructure, then why not?

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Simon E | 9 years ago
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So what is the point of having a budget?

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congokid | 9 years ago
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I hope that when they come to install the EW and NS superhighways, TfL will at least spend a little more on putting in angled (forgiving) kerb stones each side.

//2.bp.blogspot.com/_E-Gmv1JFKtE/SSrKu4_2d7I/AAAAAAAACGI/J8bAvDdc5Wk/s320/DSCF9272.JPG)

The Seven Stations route and other such paths I've used in London are severely compromised because of the right-angled kerb stones that have been used.

These effectively reduce the usable width of any path they've been installed on and, because the paths are narrow and mostly bi-directional, increase the likelihood of accidents happening. I pointed this out in my responses to last year's consultations but wonder how to get this message across more effectively.

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kitkat | 9 years ago
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That money represents people's lives. Money that should be getting spent on infrastructure that makes roads safer.

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Pippo | 9 years ago
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While the budget may be rolled over to the next financial year, there is no way that the left over money won't affect how much the departments involved in cycling e.e.g, Surface Transport will be able to appropriate. When it comes to dividing the spoils cycling will get less because they'll be deemed to already have some in the bank.

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kie7077 replied to Pippo | 9 years ago
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Pippo wrote:

While the budget may be rolled over to the next financial year, there is no way that the left over money won't affect how much the departments involved in cycling e.e.g, Surface Transport will be able to appropriate. When it comes to dividing the spoils cycling will get less because they'll be deemed to already have some in the bank.

No, I don't think they rollover the money, they've been underspending by huge amounts for years iirc.

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mrmo | 9 years ago
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I would rather the money was spent well than just spent. But you do have to wonder if budget to actual spend is so different and too many people have died whether there really is the will to spend the money at all.

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