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.
Does this mean they should be ready to apply a wrist lock to any drivers that look like they might be a threat?
If the driver was truly remorseful they would have pleaded guilty to dangerous driving rather than careless. No doubt the CPS would have bargained...
That was indeed my point - and you've confirmed that indeed it is also a *route* for cycling....
Using a website to help with bike selection. I'm keen on that myself and often compare the stats on bikes I like the look of to ones I have to...
Except, the earth isn't flat. It's a cube.
Black ice or avoiding a cyclist
They'll go batshit when they find out what TNT Sports have done in U.K.
Sorry, I think you can only see this on Facebook, but absolutely brilliant: guy in a Range Rover has his vehicle seized for no insurance, his wife...
Nice though that Ribble is, it's not a pro-team bike, is it? Got to love a bit of 90s Campagnolo, shame it's only a 50t, but I guess those Chiltern...
I'm either amazed that they can get through with (presumably) a full sized waste truck, or amazed that she could not. Although as you say the bin...