Projects encouraging green travel across the Isle of Wight will receive a £175,662 government investment boost.
All English transport authorities (outside London) were invited to submit proposals to the Department for Transport Capability Fund in Spring of this year. The Isle of Wight Council successfully received a share of the £30million available for 2021/22.
It will support existing Isle of Wight Council and partnership projects over the next year, to further encourage walking and cycling on the Island.
The funding is part of the government ambition to make cycling and walking a natural choice for shorter journeys, or as part of longer journeys by 2040, as set out in its Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy. It also aims to help local authorities to plan good active travel infrastructure.
Isle of Wight Council Leader, Councillor Lora Peacey-Wilcox, said:
“This is welcome news that we have received further funding for our sustainable transport projects. For the past ten years the council has successfully bid for active travel funding. It has meant we have been able to build very strong partnerships between organisations and businesses. It has also seen residents really come on board with the active travel message.
“This further underlines the acknowledgment by the Department for Transport of our aim of reducing carbon emissions through greener travel options. This also links into our wider target through our Mission Zero climate and environment strategy which aims to see the Island carbon-neutral by 2040 — ten years before the government target.”
The money will support:
- the existing Connct2Work project that engages with Island businesses to promote alternatives to single occupancy private car journeys for commuting and business travel. This includes workplace travel planning, cycle maintenance, guided walks and rides, and offers aimed at improving access to new and existing employment.
- continued engagement with Island schools to promote active travel and reduce private car journeys linked with home to school travel.
- the continuation of several projects which help community level active travel, such as guided walks and cycle rides, travel challenges, including the PedalAid app. The app has been developed specifically for the Isle of Wight is and has achieved over 100,000km of cycling.
- Further development of the Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plan (LCWIP) beyond the established Newport and Ryde walking and cycling networks. This will let Town and Parish
Cabinet member for infrastructure and transport, Councillor Phil Jordan, said:
“This welcome funding will let us further strengthen and continue our cycling, walking and green travel projects. I would also like to thank residents for joining us on our active travel journey.
“Our sustainable transport programme makes a real difference to Islanders lives by reducing harmful carbon emissions. It helps to remove barriers to work and gives people attractive alternatives to car use. We look forward to working with our current partner organisations and businesses to build on all we have achieved so far.”
Statistics for the council’s Sustainable Transport Access Fund extension year programme, covering the period 1st April 2020 to 31st April 2021 show the impact of COVID-19 on travel. The Island’s cycle counters shows that 2020/21 was a boom year for cycling.
Total annual cycle trips were the highest on record in 2020 (despite the absence of leisure cycle trips made by visitors), and in the period April 2020 to March 2021 (i.e. the first year of the pandemic) there was a +31 per cent year-on-year increase in cycling – almost 150,000 additional cycle trips. This trend has continued through the colder, shorter days of winter – when levels were up +61 per cent on the previous year – and into 2021.
The Shanklin / Wroxall cycle path needs decent access to join with the Alverstone Cowes cycle path.
Yet, much of this grant with be frittered away on easy to acheive pointless but lucrative unecessary work.
Cyclists should be asked, but pointless if muffled ears have already ‘decided’ what they want, not what the public need
A fine use of the money would be to create a cyclable easy link to join the two railway cycle paths, ie the Alverstone to Cowes, to link to the Shanklin to Wroxal one.
As it is, it is not easy to cycle from one to the other for lesser able cyclists.
You can throw as much money as you like at cycle tracks, they still won’t use them.
cos they’re not cycle tracks they’re shared paths
Correct. Almostpointless trying to cycle on a shared path (for example the red squirrel route from cowes to newport to sandown) as infested with runners, pedestrians, dog walkers, scooter riders etc – and its unlit at night and virtually never maintained – inches deep in mud/water lethal slippery leaves etc in autumn winter – less hassle on the main road lol
Yes plato, but I just get voted down for pointing out the obvious fact that cycles going at speed do not mix with pedestrians and dogs. It’s obvious that the people spending money on cycling routes are not regular cyclists.
of course 2020/21 was a boom year for cycling – everyone used it as an excuse for not adhering to the lockdown prison sentence imposed on every one.
this is all talk anyhow, traffic queues into newport are worse at morning/lunch and evening commutes than ever before.
if you want to reduce traffic – reduce the house building and population increase.
Perhaps you could look after the ones we already have?
Instead of just letting them degrade and leave them overgrown (in spite of them being reported as such numerous times) very poor management, but then that’s par for the course for this administration as well as most previous ones!
No wonder the public has no faith in the councillors!
They spend all this money on cycling and walking. I am 78 and am not fit enough to cycle and I live in St Lawrence where Southern Vectis doesn’ offer a bus service. Ventnor Town council has been running a minibus srvice 2 days a week between St Lawrence, Ventnor and Bonchurch. They are however taking it off in two weeks meaning the only way I can get out of St Lawrence is forking out £20 for a taxi which, being a pensioner, I cannot afford. This means, unless I can cadge a lift off someone else (embarrasing and inconvenient as I should obviously have to fit in with their time table) I shall be imprisoned in St Lawrence.
Great. Roads are infested with cyclists too much. Make them cycle roads.