Bristol has received a £3.6 million boost from the government to make walking and cycling safer and easier. The extra cash will be spent on five new projects in the city centre, Knowle West, Old Market and Bedminster, as well as new cycle hangars to prevent bicycle theft.
City Hall bosses admitted Bristol’s cycling routes were “very patchy” but said this new funding would fill in some of the missing links. £259,000 of the new cash will be spent on developing the Old Market Quietway, linking up the Bath Railway Path and Castle Park.
Three other schemes will be drawn up with the new funding, which comes from the Department for Transport’s active travel fund, in Filwood, Deanery Road, and the Malago Greenway. £1,655,000 will be spent on construction in the Old City and on King Street.
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Across the wider West of England region, £915,599 will be spent on cycle hangars, to help residents safely store their bicycles, although it’s unclear how much will be spent in each part of the region. Bristol City Council’s cabinet met on June 6 and welcomed the new cash.
The bid was submitted in February this year, and is the fourth tranche of the active travel fund. Labour Councillor Don Alexander, cabinet member for transport, said walking and cycling helped cut congestion, make people healthier and tackle climate change.
He said: “Bristol faces several transport, health and environmental challenges. Our priority is to identify funding for schemes that help reduce congestion, improve health outcomes and contribute to our objective of being net carbon zero by 2030. Walking and cycling initiatives are one of the most effective means of meeting these goals, offering several benefits beyond safer and more reliable transport connections.”
Separately, the council also recently announced an extra £11 million funding will go towards helping drivers buy cars to comply with the Clean Air Zone — more than three times the amount planned for making walking and cycling safer.
The council is relying on getting funding for new cycling routes from property developers, who have to pay towards improving local infrastructure, as well as bidding for specific cash from the Department for Transport. These bids can often take up a lot of time for council officers to draw up, and the funding is dished out in stages, making it harder to plan for the long term.
Cllr Alexander added: “This bid is part of this bid-and-beg funding model, which makes it really difficult to achieve sweeping changes. One of the criticisms of our cycling and walking infrastructure is that it’s very patchy. Well it is patchy because we keep begging for money to fill in bits of it all the time, but that’s the nature of local government funding.”
Elsewhere in England other combined authorities received much more money for walking and cycling, from the latest round of the active travel fund. Greater Manchester received £23.7 million, West Yorkshire received £17.4 million, the Liverpool City Region received £14.4 million, and West Midlands Combined Authority received £12.6 million.
Cllr Emma Edwards, leader of the Green group, welcomed the cash for Bristol but said more could be done in the city to help get a larger pot of funding in the future. The Department for Transport grades each area on their “capability level” for building new walking and cycling infrastructure, such as building new lanes wide enough to meet national standards.
Cllr Edwards said: “The Green group welcomes this news and we’re delighted that this funding has been secured to deliver this cycling infrastructure. We’re pleased that the administration has listened to us and cycling advocates who have called for improvements to cycle lanes and the need for a joined-up network of lanes in Bristol. The route through Old Market in particular is welcome as it goes towards improving a vital cycling corridor.
“While securing this funding is to be celebrated, in comparison with other cities there’s far more that could be secured — which is why we hope the administration will be mindful of how existing and developing cycle lanes are developed. In particular we must ensure that new infrastructure is high quality and meets national standards, to ensure that we can always bid for the funds that Bristol deserves.”
One route the new funding won’t be spent on, despite high demand, is along Feeder Road. The road runs from Temple Meads through St Phillips Marsh to St Anne's and Brislington, an area poorly served by buses and trains and so many people rely on walking and cycling into the city centre. But Feeder Road has narrow pavements, no proper cycle lanes, and is well used by large lorries and other freight vehicles.
However, funding to help improve walking and cycling routes along Feeder Road could instead come from the huge Temple Quarter regeneration project, according to Labour Cllr Tim Rippington, representing Brislington East. Developers have to give money to councils to help upgrade local infrastructure, under a legal rule called Section 106.
Cllr Rippington said: “Feeder Road is always raised as an issue with my residents. In absence of buses or trains, they would love to cycle into Temple Meads and the centre — but Feeder Road is a really, really difficult road for them. The regeneration of Temple Quarter will undoubtedly bring a sizeable pot of Section 106 money into the council.”
Elsewhere in Bristol, construction work has just begun on building a new bike lane on the Bristol Bridge, which will eventually stretch down Victoria Street and link up with the bike lanes around Temple Gate and Temple Meads. However, these lanes around Temple Gate have been blocked off since October last year, after a fire in the derelict Grosvenor Hotel.
