Fears cuts will put brakes on cycling boom

Analysis by cycle path developers Sustrans shows the cuts would mean fewer people cycling, tourism would be hit and businesses would lose work if new routes are shelved and maintenance cut. It has calculated the cuts could cause an annual loss to Scotland of £103m, comprising leisure and tourism income being reduced by £74m, lost spending on new routes of £12m because of previous matching funding from councils, and the health benefits of cycling being diminished by £17m.

The organisation says it also faces losing most of its 22 staff in Scotland because almost all of its funding comes from the Scottish Government.

Ministers plan to cut the main budget which provides cycle funding by more than one third next year from £25m to £16m. While this cut would be restored in 2013-14, funding would fall even further to £15m the following year.

Cycling campaigners fear the cuts could wipe out the current cycling boom. They also claim the cuts could have major implications for health if fewer people walk and cycle – known as “active travel”.

If the reductions go ahead, the government would be hard pressed to meet its target of a five-fold increase in the proportion of cycle journeys, from 2 per cent to 10 per cent.

Sustrans Scotland director John Lauder said: “The figures starkly demonstrate the worth of small investment in local projects that are making big impacts, both locally and nationally.

“Cutting funding in active travel now is the wrong direction for Scotland. Without continued funding, usage and associated economic activity will fall back to levels recorded in 2000. Re-instating a £25m budget to prevent a £100m lost opportunity is an investment well worth making.”

Lauder added. “Sustrans Scotland would be reduced to a core staff of just a few people.”

The cuts have also angered the Scottish Government-funded umbrella body Cycling Scotland. Chief executive Ian Aitken said: “Substantial cuts in funding will make delivering the Cycling Action Plan for Scotland vision of 10 per cent of all journeys made by bike by 2020 very challenging.

“In times of recession, cycling projects are the schemes that should be prioritised as they offer fantastic return on investment at a fraction of the cost of road and rail projects.”

David Connolly, of consultants MVA, said cycling had major health benefits. He said: “Establishing a culture of cycling among young people is the biggest preventative intervention you can have – such as against future ill health and postponing people buying their first car.”

Parents said they would think twice about using cycle paths with their children if maintenance was cut.

Jill McGregor, an Edinburgh nurse whose three daughters cycle to school, said: “Maintaining paths is imperative – if they were not it would be a major issue for many people.”

She said the muddy, overgrown Christian Path near her home in Portobello, had become a popular school route after being cleared and paved, and she feared for its future if maintenance stopped.

Donald Hutchison, who runs self-catering cottages in Appin, Argyll, said one in five of his guests now cycled, yet their scope was severely limited by an unfinished section of the national cycle network which is threatened by cuts.

The four-mile, off-road stretch would link Appin to the cycle path at Kentallen and on to Ballachulish and Glencoe.

He said cyclists currently have no option but to take their life in their hands and use the busy A828 road instead. Hutchison said: “I would not like to cycle on it at all. You cannot put children on it.”

Spokes, the Lothian cycle campaign, condemned the Scottish Government for focusing spending on roads rather than cycling and walking.

Lead organiser Dave du Feu said: “Spokes urges everyone concerned about this appalling shift in priorities and disregard of the SNP’s own manifesto, to ask their MSPs to seek changes in the draft budget”

A spokeswoman for the Scottish Government’s Transport Scotland agency said: “Despite a 36 per cent real terms cut to our capital budget imposed by Westminster and the difficult choices that have had to be taken as a consequence, we remain committed to developing the sustainable transport agenda.”