Norwich was one of the eight cities named by Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg as eligible to receive a share of £114m of funding via Cycle City Ambition grants. However, EDP 24 reports that the council has just one month to present their bid to the Department for Transport (DfT) and that £8.4m could be in jeopardy as a consequence.
The council say that a month is a short space of time in which to identify the specific schemes the money will be spent on. They asked the DfT if they could have more time, but were told this was not possible.
“There is a chicken and egg issue, but we have got to produce a proposal which meets the Department for Transport approval,” said Mike Stonard, cabinet member for environment, development and transport.
The government has acknowledged that there are time constraints and it is hoped that flexibility will be shown with regards to precise details. “Hopefully we will be able to produce another high quality scheme and put Norwich right back on the map for cyclists,” said Stonard.
The council is currently in the middle of its Push the Pedalways scheme, a £5.7m programme of improvements to the eight-mile pink pedalway cycle route between the Norwich Research Park and Heartsease as well as the connections leading to it.
As part of improvements, funding has been allocated that would see 20mph zones introduced in the city centre, The Avenues and Heartsease. While The Avenues section has already been approved, consultation is currently underway for the city centre and will begin for Heartsease on Monday January 19.
A decision on the proposals relating to Tombland and Palace Street has been deferred until the 22 January meeting to allow interested parties to consider the findings of a newly-published safety audit report.
Riding in primary wouldn't stop a motorist crossing the white line to overtake: arguably, it would encourage them to cross the white line giving...
Cycling infrastructure does not force drivers to break the law, drivers are the reason they break the law, no one else.
Ah but taking pictures of things to defy the man (avoid a fine) is righteous. Taking pictures of people to grass on them to the cops (perhaps...
Never had a Shimano QR fail on me. They just work. And the top end ones look good too....
If you're only looking at the guy in front of you then you're going to crash whatever brakes you have, you need to look beyond them to anticipate...
As a woman, this works great for me! My chain broke once, and a kind guy stopped with a chain breaker and sorted it all out for me. We stopped at a...
Same. I also have gone through a bunch of their tyres, and only the extralight disappointed (torn sidewall) but the standards are fantastic....
thanks for the ideas....
Indeed - but it's no more inconsistent than our current road design - very often UK high streets are "for shopping" and also a busy through route....
If you ask the world's leading economic commentators how many people have been rescued from abject poverty by capitalism the average answer would...