“Scotland leading the way on active travel in the UK,” says Cycling UK: Charity welcomes record sustainable travel funding in Scottish government budget
Scotland is “leading the way on active travel in the UK”, Cycling UK has claimed, after the Scottish government yesterday committed to increasing its funding for ‘active and sustainable travel’ to a record £196.5m in its budget for 2023/24.That’s a £46.5m increase on the pot previously set aside for cycling and walking, and means that 5.6 percent of the overall transport budget at Holyrood will be spent on active and sustainable travel.
However, it still falls short of the Scottish government’s commitment to spend at least £320m, or 10 percent of the total transport budget, on active travel by 2024/25.
The use of the term ‘active and sustainable travel’ in yesterday’s announcement has also proved frustrating for cycling and walking campaigners, who have argued that it obfuscates the amount of money set to be spent on those specific activities compared to previous years.
In his speech to parliament yesterday, SNP Deputy First Minister John Swinney said that “decarbonising transport remains one of the key challenges we face in reaching Net Zero” and that the government would “invest nearly £200 million in active and sustainable travel”.
The news has been welcomed by charity Cycling UK, who have described the Scottish government’s new active travel budget as “a welcome increase in investment at this time of financial pressure”.
“As a low-cost form of transport, cycling can help to ease the impact of the cost-of-living crisis on people’s lives,” says Jim Densham, Cycling UK’s campaigns and policy manager for Scotland.
“We know that investing in cycling is incredibly good value for money, as it brings so many benefits for people’s health, the environment, local economies, and for liveable neighbourhoods.
“It’s good to see Scotland leading the way on active travel in the UK and taking steps towards much bigger spending that has been promised for coming years.
“However, it is frustrating that a change in language makes it difficult to make a precise comparison to the previous budget. We want Government to provide an exact figure for spending on active travel, and to provide a more detailed breakdown of their budgets.”
https://road.cc/content/news/cycling-live-blog-16-december-2022-298095
Thoughts? Mine are that's good on the face of it but so little tangible to show for it? Along with national and local funds now being raided for dubious car-centric schemes eg Dalmahoy
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