Joan’s Delight at Cycling Success

Seventeen years or so ago, as a shadow transport minister, I helped prepare a transport strategy for Labour in the event of getting a Labour government. That strategy was for all travel and transport to be integrated including cycling and walking. This wasn't to say everyone should cycle everywhere all of the time but where it made sense, that option should be included.

My role involved me attending lots of meetings and discussions, including speaking at the opening of a major cycling conference in Switzerland where the local council had just completed a cycle route after many years of campaigning. "What we do, we do for our grandchildren, not our children," said the chairman of the council in his attempt to explain that some things just cannot be achieved overnight. They require time.

In the meantime I have kept up the pressure to get cycling into Stoke-on-Trent.  I organised an initial meeting with the Council and Sustrans at the North Stafford Hotel and out of that came the initiative to secure some funding for national millennium routes through Stoke on Trent.

I organised meeting after meeting with the then highway officials who believed that travel was transport was highways and that funding should be spent exclusively on highways.  Having worked hard to persuade our government to introduce funding for safe routes to school, and seen how some areas had used that funding to encourage some children to cycle safely to school, I could not accept that it was okay for some areas to do that but not here in Stoke on Trent.

All of this is water under the bridge. Suffice to say that that argument has finally been won. If it makes sense to encourage certain journeys by bike, lets go for it.  If we can use parts of the greenway and offer cycling stretches, why not?

Last week on three consecutive days it seemed that after many years of trying, we really have something to celebrate.

First there was the announcement by government that Stoke-on-Trent's cycling bid has been approved.  All in all, including a contribution from the Council, there will be £10 million to spend on encouraging cycling, mostly with new government money. Compared to the amount spent on highways it is small, but it is a huge boost for cycling.

Already though there have been the predictable arguments that this will effectively be a waste of money. But compared to the national average, the numbers of people cycling to work for example is just 1.4% compared to the national average of 3.1%. This money will help us get people using bikes more - for work or leisure. 

Then the next day, just off Route 55 at Burnwood Primary, I was thrilled to attend the opening of the new cycling track. This is phase 2 of a long term vision to introduce youngsters to safe cycling. Headteacher Dianne Herbert has acted as a true ambassador for cycling.  Having won the argument on Safe Routes to School to include cycling, her school now has a cycle track, cycles,

and is working with Cycling Great Britain to link the pupils to cycling initiatives. In doing so, attitudes are being transformed as pupils gain confidence and Burnwood is being heralded as a beacon of good practice. So much for the early protestations that cycling had no place in local policies.

Then on Sunday, just to round off the week, I was able to catch up with a large group of families off on a family cycle ride from Ford Green to Biddulph Grange.  Through small steps like this we can promote awareness about the part cycling can play if only we have the appropriate facilities.  Stoke on Trent Council can be proud  of the praise from John Grimshaw, Director of Sustrans, who, when he opened the Route 55 track, said that its standard of construction was one of the highest that he had seen anywhere in the country.

There will always be those who will resist any expenditure on cycling, there will be those like Fred Hughes who are right to question whether the extra money we have won will be well spent.  The answer is not to close the door to cycling. It is to work with enthusiasts like the children at Burnwood to see what contribution cycling, along with all other investment into other modes of transport, can make to integrated travel, leisure and health policies in our city.

We can't legislate for cycling. And no one is suggesting that it is the answer to all the traffic problems in the city.  But it does have a part to play.