Worcestershire County Council has been barred from accessing funding for cycling and walking schemes after Active Travel England said that it has “not demonstrated the minimum levels of local leadership and/or delivery track record that we require”.
Worcester News reports that the county council was handed a ‘level zero’ rating by the new government body, below the ‘level one’ standard – given to local authorities deemed to have shown “some local leadership and support with basic plans and isolated interventions” – the council awarded itself when ranking its own performance regarding active travel.
The miserable rating is also miles away from the highest ‘level four’, bestowed upon councils which have an “established culture of active travel” and “highly supportive” policies which help reduce car trips.
The embarrassing ranking in Worcestershire comes after two previous active travel funding bids fell far short of expectations, with the county council receiving just over half of the £1.3 million it had bid for, and means that Active Travel England will be “withholding funding until improvements are made” and that the council is banned from making any new bids.
> Worcestershire again misses out on funding after highways boss said lockdown cycling was “just a phase”
“Our funding is limited and we need to invest it in areas where we are likely to achieve our long-term outcomes,” Active Travel England said in a letter to the council.
“Unfortunately, we have assessed that the evidence you have provided does not demonstrate the minimum levels of local leadership and/or delivery track record that we require.”
Mike Rouse, the council’s cabinet member for highways and transport, said: “It is disappointing that Active Travel England decided to override our fair and reasonable ‘level one’ rating and put us at ‘level zero’ instead, potentially cutting us off from funding opportunities.
“I have written to the new Secretary of State at the Department for Transport to voice my concern at this assessment, and I have invited her to come to Worcestershire, to hear our plans and see the difference increased government funding could make to the county.
“We felt we were able to rate ourselves at ‘level one’ for our performance, as we have delivered a number of schemes to improve cycling and walking routes and we have more proposals on the way. We spend more than £20m per year on active travel measures.”
> Extension of cycling ban in Worcester city centre 'an embarrassment'
This week’s news isn’t the first time that Worcestershire County Council have fallen short when it comes to active travel schemes.
In 2020, the council received only half of the money it bid for during the first and second tranches of emergency active travel funding, after its then-cabinet member for highways, Alan Amos, had described the rise in cycling during lockdown as “just a phase”.
Amos’s position on cycling had long been under scrutiny, after the councillor was one of the leading advocates for the 2018 ban on cycling in Worcester city centre.
Speaking at the time, he said that those who rode bikes in the area were “dangerous and selfish” and “wretched people”.