Scottish campaigners push for doubling of govt cycling budget…

Spokes the Lothian cycle campaign has lead calls on the Scottish government to dramatically increase its spending on cycling provision in Scotland.

Opposition parties have backed their call and when Scots Finance Minister John Swinney appears before the Scottish Parliament's Transport, Infrastructure and Climate Change Committee there is a strong feeling that he will agree to increasing spending on cycling.

In support of their case Spokes point out that Scotland is falling well behind other European countries in its provision for cyclists. Bikes are used for just 1% of journeys in Scotland, compared to 10% in Germany, 18% in Denmark and 27% in the Netherlands.

They also acussed the Scottish government of talking up cycling while not doing anything to actually support it. 

Cycling currently accounts for 1 per cent of the Scottish transport budget. Scotland's proposed roads budget for 2009-10 is £1064m up by £134m on 2008-09. Spokes are asking for this to be increased to 2 per cent, £20m. The central thrust of their campaign is that money spent on cycle training is wasted money if Scottish roads remain forbidding places for new cyclists to use.