After years of talk, frustrated cyclists want to know how serious Newcastle really is about creating safe conditions for everyone to cycle. There are good signs but bad ones too. What is Newcastle City Council doing to become a City Fit for Cycling?
Earlier this year, we sent our views to the Cross-party Parliamentary inquiry about cycling , triggered by the Times City Fit for Cycling campaign. Well, the summary report is out ! The recommendations are spot on so please show your support by adding your name to the petition asking for prompt implementation:
Today we sent our support to Newcastle City Council vying for £5.6m for the City with seven other Core Cities. By doing so we have joined a host of illustrious supporters ranging from politicians, businesses to groups and organisations. The bid would financially cover the first two years of Newcastle's 10-year Cycle Plan. The money would be welcome to realise Newcastle's bold ambition to make our City Fit for Cycling and it would mean that £10 per person could be spent on cycling infrastructure - which is in line with expenditure of European cycling 'starter countries'.
Green activists and groups take over Leazes Park for two days. This lovely festival offers a huge range of entertainment, activities, workshops and information to spread a message of environmental protection and social justice... and all running on green power sources. All welcome, great fun for the kids and the grown-ups. Get there on your bike!
Last year we put cycling firmly on Newcastle's political agenda. And what was true then, remains true now. We have the City chiefs and a good number of local Councillors on cycling's side. It's excellent and we thank these political pedal pioneers.
Nine months after launching the Cities Fit for Cycling campaign, The Times takes stock. The 8-point manifesto to make cycling safer is reviewed and the conclusions are clear: not good enough. The government needs to do much more to tackle the issues and make decent progress: levels of funding earmarked for cycling infrastructure in particular are too low to make a real difference on the ground.
And we are planning another 4C = City Chief Cycle Challenge! Taking our politicians 'roon the toon - cycling, chatting, exchanging views. John Dobson Street should feature quite heavily this time, as there are immediate plans to make it cycle-friendly (as an alternative to Northumberland Street). We are eager to see the changes since last year.
In October, we carried out our second Councillor Travel Survey. The leader and leader of the opposition replied and we are saying a massive thanks to both of them for their contributions. We wish their flock would have done the same but the overall replies are too few to analyse them in a meaningful way. We would have liked to report back to you like we did in 2010. This year only 21 out of the 78 City Councillors bothered to fill in the 1 minute survey. Compare that to 2010, when 39 Councillors responded.
