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SPOKESWORKER 12th. August 1997

Scottish Cycle Challenge Applications. Results announced 12.97.

Applications for over £2m have been submitted to the Scottish Office Cycle Challenge scheme which offers a total of £0.5m for schemes which are innovative ways to encourage more people to cycle. (More details - p.1 of SPOKES Newsletter 64). Winners to be announced this autumn. Schemes we have heard of include...

1. SPOKES entry - innovative methods of cycle map distribution (will also include new bike maps for W. Lothian, Livingston and Midlothian). Peter 0131.453.3366.Winner
2. Lothian Safe Routes (project resulting from SPOKES school challenge). Ian 0131.669.6542.Winner
3. Cycle training for Adults
4. Cycle proficiency training research - Chris Hill 0131.228.2927.
5. Safe routes to Royal High & primaries - ditto.
6. Promoting travel to work by bike - Edinburgh FoE Winner
7. City Bikes Trial - bike stations/hire using smart card.
8. Bikes on Buses. Winner
9. Cycling projects database - CTC Scotland. Winner
10. Roseburn Primary Cycle Club - cycle skills, events, etc. Winner
11. Meadows Area Schools Cycling Initiative
12. Edinburgh Council: Innovative cycle route, Princes St. to Leith including cycle lift, smooth strips in cobbles, possible tunnel re-use, etc.
13. Edinburgh Council: Cycle parking for tenements.Winner
14. Clackmannanshire: Healthy-tourism cycle network linking towns & tourist destinations.
15. Glasgow: Adult cycle training.
16. N. Lanarkshire: cycle route linking leisure centres. (supported by Strathclyde Cycle Campaign).
17. E. Dunbartonshire: various paths, map & leaflet (ditto).
18. Dundee: Safe routes to school project. Winner
19. Falkirk: Grangemouth cycle-friendly town.
20. Renfrew: On-road lanes, Paisley to Glasgow airport.
21. Inverclyde: "Kick-start" commuting - lockers, parking, promotion.
22. Stirling: Eastern Villages route (to Plean/Cowie/Fallin).

In total we understand there are 80 bids, for a total of £2m., from the £0.5m. available. Apparantly, the various bids mostly include additional/matching funds from other sources, totalling £3m. - so if all the bids were successful (which is obviously impossible), then a total of £2m+£3m=£5m would be spent on these innovative projects to encourage more cycling in Scotland. SPOKES has written to Scottish Office Transport Minister Malcolm Chisholm asking that the £0.5m allocated by the SO to the Challenge be increased to £1m., using funds saved from the moratorium he has announced in the Scottish Office Trunk Roads programme - even if all the roads suspended were to be approved next year (which is very unlikely) there would still be worthwhile savings in the current year; certainly well over the £0.5m needed for our suggestions.
IF YOU WOULD LIKE MORE MONEY ALLOCATED TO THE CYCLE CHALLENGE SCHEME, PLEASE WRITE TO YOUR OWN MP, AND ASK THEM TO TAKE THIS UP WITH THE MINISTER, MALCOLM CHISHOLM. If you write direct to Mr Chisholm he is unlikely to see your letter - it will be answered by an official. But if your letter is forwarded by your MP, he will probably see it. Write to your MP at House of Commons, London SW1A 0AA. If you don't know their name, phone the Citizen's Advice Bureau at 0131.557.1500.

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Scottish Office Transport Review.

Now that the Scottish Office is reviewing transport strategy overall, as well as all major trunk road proposals, it is important for MPs to receive letters with positive ideas. Write to your MP (or add further ideas to the above letter). Our survey of councils transport capital spending last year (SPOKES 63) showed huge cuts in local transport spending, often reflected in cuts in cycle proposals, as a result of reduced cash to councils from the Scottish Office. More sources of money are vital. Two obvious sources are....

1. Road pricing - such as Edinburgh's proposed toll to cross the city bypass
2. Tax on private non-residential parking spaces (to be paid by the supplier of the spaces),e.g. including commuting car-park spaces provided by large employers; and out-of-town superstore parking places such as the Gyle.

It would also be vital that regulations be brought in to ensure that the money raised be devoted to sustainable transport - not to some old road scheme out of the council's filing cabinet! SEND YOUR IDEAS TO YOUR MP, AND SAY YOU WOULD LIKE THEM TAKEN INTO ACCOUNT IN THE TRANSPORT REVIEW - ASK YOUR MP TO PASS THEM ON FOR THIS AND TO ARRANGE FOR YOU TO GET A REPLY.

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West Lothian News.

1. Following our centre-page spread in Leaflet 66 (see factsheet 31), we wrote to our 12 or so members who live nearish to the A89, asking them to write to LEEL and the Council about an A89 cycle route, Newbridge to Uphall. To our great delight, at least 7 (to our knowledge) did write: probably the greatest response rate of any Spokes circular ever! As a direct result, the project has moved up the agenda, with the Council allocating funds (£5000) for detailed route design; and LEEL and the council looking for other funding partners for construction. Congratulations to our members in Uphall/Dechmont/etc!!!
2. A project has begun to construct a SUSTAINABLE VILLAGE at Gowanbank, just south of Avonbridge, also lying between the Sustrans Bathgate/Airdrie path and the Union Canal towpath near Linlithgow. The organisers are hoping to devise a recommended safe cycle route (maybe with improvements) linking these two east-west Edinburgh-Glasgow major paths, along a north-south route through their site. If you can help survey alternatives, contact 0131.558.8763, Greig Robertson (Sustainable Villages Project Trust), web site at http://www.virtual-world.co.uk/village. It is hoped the village will develop something like Machynlleth Alternative Technology Centre in mid-Wales - contact the above number if you are interested in becoming involved in the project, either living, working or visiting.

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