This blog has sounded the alarm before that lumping cycling and other green transport funding into a big 'sustainable transport' pot was wide open to abuse, and councils would try to pass off their pet petrol-powered projects as 'green' and 'sustainable' in order to get their oily mitts on the cash. Bypasses buy votes at local elections; cycling doesn't.
And so it came to pass. The Longendale Bypass had been killed off by the spending cuts. But Richard George blogs at Campaign for Better Transport: 'Tameside [Council] has rallied, and now plans to submit its bypass to the Regional Growth Fund and Local Sustainable Transport Fund. This should be interesting: the scheme in no way supports "sustainable economic growth" and is the antithesis of sustainable transport. '
If you remember last week, I quoted Norman Baker (Minister for as saying (about simplifying the distribution of funding for local transport schemes):
"I don’t think that local councils, even if they’re given a lot more power, will suddenly go round saying: ‘Whoopee, we’ve got all this power: let’s build a 15-lane motorway!’ They aren’t going to do that, are they? I think local councillors want to do some of these green things."
Think again, Norman.
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