Bristol is 'wasting' cycling millions

Organisers of a £22.8-million project to make Bristol more cycle-friendly have been told to stop talking and get on with the job.

Cycling City has until March 2011 to spend the money or face losing it.

But organisers have only been able to give the Bristol Evening Post details of projects costing a combined £1.71 million that have got under way so far.

Now the chairman of Cycling England, the public body which chose Bristol to be the UK's first Cycling City in June last year, has told the scheme's organisers to "get on with it" during a visit to the city.

Half of the money allocated to Cycling City – £11.4 million – comes from the Government. The other half is due to come from Bristol City and South Gloucestershire councils, with Bristol spending about £7.6 million and South Gloucestershire about £3.8 million.

If the money is not spent, the government cash will have to returned, while the Post understands that the money put up by the two councils would not necessarily be reallocated to other transport projects.

At a meeting with council bosses and user groups at the County Ground in Ashley Down yesterday, Cycling England chairman Phillip Darnton warned that things need to start progressing swiftly if the Bristol pilot scheme can be deemed a success.

Mr Darnton, who spent more than 30 years as an executive at Unilever, said Cycling England and Cycling City were "in this right up to our necks" and said it was better to press on with an imperfect scheme than endlessly delaying to try and improve it.

He said: "There comes a time in a project where somebody has to say, 'B-plus is good enough'. If we have a B-plus and 100 per cent support, it will be terrific.

"Worrying and worrying about whether you can get an A-plus plan, you are never starting and never starting. We have to get on with it. Getting it started now is far more important than having it perfect."

The most important part of Cycling City for Mr Darnton was enthusing people to start cycling, not preaching to those already on two wheels.

"I think we forget that most people are not cyclists," he said. "Most people are not like us. Most people think that we are crazy, unwashed, a waste of space.

"If we are to get more people cycling, there's no amount of cycling that the people in this room can do to double the number of cyclists.

"We need to attract people who are not like us. We have got to persuade people that they can do it too."

Cycling City project manager Ed Plowden said that when he took over the running of the project six months ago, things were not happening as he would have wanted.

Since then he said the team had gone from free wheeling aimlessly to pedalling furiously in top gear.

Mr Plowden sited hundreds of bicycle stands appearing across the city, a new cycle path between Muller Road and St Werburgh's and the Princes Street Bridge modifications as some of the real things that Cycling City have already done. And he said that in the next few months, many more schemes will be announced.

He said: "We are aware that the awareness (of the project) has not been great. We have been ambitious and we have got some difficult things to do. We are now moving from the planning to the execution phase."

Sustrans founder and former chief executive John Grimshaw, in the past responsible for spending many millions of pounds on the National Cycle Network and other cycling schemes across the country, was among the invited guests at yesterday's meeting.

He said: "This is a really tough one. I like to see lots happening right away. At the moment, the most disappointing thing for me is that we have not got Bristol and South Gloucestershire working as a whole.

"I think there has been too much discussion, but that does not matter if at the end of the day it gets delivered.

"We have got this narrow window of opportunity. We have got miles and miles to go right now. If everything that they have been talking about happens, it will be a very exciting 12 months to come."

Bristol City Council chief executive Jan Ormondroyd admitted that the Cycling City team, now made up of 12 full-time members of staff, had been slow delivering the project.

She and executive member for transport Jon Rogers said the project would be delivered on time.

Dr Rogers said: "We want to make this a real success. To double the number of cyclists in Bristol over the course of the project is an extremely optimistic timescale.

"It's not just about cycling. It's about walking, sharing the road, developing a different sort of city."

How some of Bristol's £22.8 million cycling city money has been spent:

Cycle training in Bristol schools: £450,000

New cycle path from St Werburgh's to Muller Road: £350,000

Cycle training in South Glos schools: £200,000

Cycle path from UWE to Parkway station (currently being built): £220,000

Cycle path from MoD offices to Parkway (currently being built): £200,000

Cycle path from Frenchay Hospital to UWE (currently being built): £150,000

Installation of 800 cycle stands everywhere there are two or more shops: £100,000

Prince Street bridge modifications: £40,000

Subsiding 250 Bristol residents to have bicycle training with Life Cycle: £6,250

Knocking on 8,000 doors to encourage cycling: secret due to 'commercial sensitivities'