1000 and counting.... cycle training pays off in Sheffield

"It has cost public funds the equivalent of a metre of modern highway and led to a council-estimated increase in cycling of 70%. And that's in Sheffield, where both the landscape and shifts in political control are as up-and-down as they come."

Photo Caption:Wendy Melia cycling in Sheffield. 

Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian

A recent Guardian article has praised the work of Sheffield-based Pedal Ready cycle training co-op which has just past the milestone of training 1000 adults to cycle safely and competently in Sheffield.  In an accompanying audio slideshow the1000th trainee, Wendy Melia a HR officer at the Department for Work and Pensions recounts how the one-to-one cycle training has given her the confidence to cycle the two miles to work.

So what's happening in Greater Manchester?

On 22nd June 2010, during Bike Week, Manchester City Council announced that they are funding an adult cycle training scheme which would provide free training for up to 300 people. The cycle training will be provided by BikeRight! the Manchester-based cycle training company and if you live or work in Manchester you could be able to sign up for a free cycle training session. The project blurb highlights how "If you don't cycle and want to learn all the right skills, or are returning to cycling and want to brush-up on your technique then this FREE training is just up your street" and that "During the training you will"

• Discover how to deal with busy traffic

• Learn about road positioning and how to be seen by other traffic

• Find great cycling routes for your everyday journeys around Manchester

• Get tips for riding at night-time or in bad weather

• Learn all about safety, clothing and other equipment

• Pick-up maintenance tips

• Learn to ride if you are a complete beginner."

As the BikeRight! promo says: "Get fit, save money, meet people, get to work and back on time, avoid traffic jams, save fuel, exercise for free, loose weight, burn calories, learn new skills, gain confidence… what more can we say to get you cycling around Manchester? -How about FREE adult cycle training?"

So thats all really fab from Manchester but what is happening in the other 9 local authorities in Greater Manchester?

Well, those lovely people at Love Your Bike wanted to ask the same question and had noticed that buried away in the Local Transport Plan (LTP2) was a commitment from all the GM local authorities to establish adult cycle training projects before April 2011. The LTP2 document states that:

“Actions for Cycling: During the next five years, we shall take the following steps to improve cycling:  Delivery of improved school cycle training  and establishing adult cycle training - the latter inline with the recommendations of a study to be commissioned" 

So Love Your Bike wrote to all the Chief Executives and Council leaders at the other nine Greater Manchester local authorities asking when they would honour their commitment in Local Transport Plan 2 to establish adult cycle training schemes.  Listed below are the key points from the responses received:

Bolton: "Further to your recent e-mail enquiry to Access Bolton, I can advise that it has now been passed on to our Chief Executives Department. They will respond to your enquiry within 14 days."   [Automatic message received on 21st June (and following a reminder email - on 15th July). Love Your Bike has apparently not yet received a response].

Bury: "In conclusion, I regret to say that without bespoke funding we are unable to deliver a wider programme of adult cycle training."

Oldham: the provision of adult cycle training, has been considered in Oldham.  The Cycling Officer and Road Safety team at the Unity Partnership, which works on behalf of Oldham Council, are looking at establishing targeted adult cycle training initiatives. ...These adult cycle training courses would be delivered by officers from the Unity Partnership but the number of courses available would be limited in number.  They are planned to be piloted over the next twelve months.

Rochdale: " we in the Road Safety Team, have offered Adult 1:1 cycle training for at least the 5 years I have been over the team.  I know that the CTC based officer who is linked to RMBC Sustainability Team also offers Adult Cycle Training."

Salford: "I have now passed your email on to Sue Lightup, Strategic Director for Community, Health and Social Care."  (21st July)

Stockport: "Adult cycle training is available for Council employees as part of the Councils own staff travel plan.  Officers are considering how adult cycle training could be provided for the public."

Tameside:  "Here in Tameside we take a holistic approach to cycling both in capital infrastructure and in promotional activities. During the first 4 years of LTP2, Tameside has spent over £580k purely on cycle schemes during this period. These were mainly linked with off road schemes such as surfacing the NCN 66 linking Ashton with Oldham and on the ongoing upgrade of the cycle link connecting Ashton and Manchester via Droylsden."   Its a shame that the Council's holistic approach didnt extend to answering the specific question(s)!

Trafford: "It is encouraging to note that cycling levels in GM have increased by 17% (2009 values as compared to the 2005 base) but unfortunately due to the financial constraints imposed on local authorities regarding public sector spending, it is unlikely that the council can allocate any monies for adult cycle training at this moment in time. However, recognising that the correct cycle training could help break down the barriers for a lot of people wishing to commute via cycle, we will continue to source and secure any future funding opportunities that may arise in the future."

Wigan: We have also been offering free cycle training sessions to the residents of Leigh, as part of the Leigh Cycling Project; ten adults signed up for this during Bike Week last year.   In addition, we get ad-hoc telephone calls and emails from adults requesting cycle training and we try to accommodate them, where possible.   These have been one-off projects but we are exploring ways of providing more structured adult cycle training on a longer term basis.

So with a couple of small exceptions, it would seem that there isn't much in the way of adult cycle training being provided by other local authorities across Greater Manchester.  A number of responses made the same point (excuse?): "So although there was a commitment to investigate the potential at GM level and implement any recommendations this study at GM level has not been undertaken so there are no recommendations for individual authorities to follow at the present time." 

Basically the arguments put forward seem to be that because "no Greater Manchester-wide study was undertaken" and that "no central revenue funding has been available for adult cycle training" that the Greater Manchester local councils have been unable to provide adult cycle training schemes.

What is encouraging about the Sheffield Council adult cycle training scheme is that it has been funded from the Council's main transport budget.  Sheffield didn't wait for any revenue from central government.  It saw that there was a need for adult cycle training and got on and did it.

The Sheffield cycle training for 300 people last year was provided for approximately £16,000.

Sheffield's population is estimated to be 534,500 and according to the 2001 Census data, Bury's population was 180,608 and Tameside's population was 213,045. Pro-rata, in terms of population, adult cycle training schemes for Bury and Tameside (just to take two examples) could be run for around  £5,000 (100 people) in Bury and £6,000 (120 people) in Tameside.

This is not about access to Government or Cycling England funding it is about the LACK of political priority for measures to increase cycling levels in Greater Manchester - which are very low compared to other metropolitan areas in the UK. Many other local authorities across the United Kingdom have actively supported adult cycle training projects with funding from a wide range of sources: health, transport and even crime reduction budgets (or from fines for inconsiderate cycling or driving but thats a subject for abother blog entry). These Council's have recognised the importance and effectiveness of cycle training in encouraging more people to cycle safely and confidently.  They haven't moaned about the lack of central government funding - they have got on a done it.

The road crash data (Killed and Seriously Injured, KSI) for Greater Manchester in relation to cycling shows that in the past few years the (thankfully small number of) people who have been killed whilst cycling have mostly been adults - and yet the response from the road safety units - that often have responsibility for cycle training -  is that they have not established adult cycle training - because there is no central government funding available.

So if you live or work in Manchester and would like to cycle more (to work, the shops or for leisure) but don't feel confident on the roads then get in touch with BikeRight! and sign up for a Freewheeling cycle training session.

If you live and work in another Greater Manchester council area - we suggest you get in touch with your councillors and Chief Executive and ask them when they are going to provide adult cycle training in their area.

It will be important to make sure that pro-cycling measures and funding are included in the new Local Transport Plan (LTP3) - but that, as they say, will have to wait for a future blog.

21st Anniversary for the Trans Pennine Trail

This year sees the 21^st Anniversary of the Trans Pennine Trail (TPT).  To celebrate this wonderful achievement there is a Anniversary Baton Relay from all five gateways to the Trail culminating in a Celebration Festival at the mid-point of the Trail.

With the Trans Pennine Trail crossing through Trafford, Manchester and Stockport there will be an afternoon of celebration events on Tuesday 15th June.  The timetable is (something) like this:

2.30pm at Jacksons Boat - the Baton will handed on from Trafford to Manchester

Pupils from Brookburn Primary School will then walk with the Baton to Chorlton Water Park.

From there a Trans Pennine Trail ranger will set off at 3.30pm and cycle with the Baton to Simons Bridge where it will be handed over to Stockport for the next leg of the journey.

For more details of the Manchester events please contact

Sophie Armstrong, School Travel Coordinator. Tel: 0161 234 3562 or via s.armstrong5@manchester.gov.uk

Desperately seeking Member Champions for Cycling

In February 2008, Cycling England wrote to all local highway authorities in England encouraging them to agree to appoint a "Member Champion for Cycling".

Cycling England suggested this idea because they wanted to support local authorities to increase the promote of cycling and recognised that elected Councillors play a key role in setting the priorities of their Councils. The invitation outlined the range of support that Cycling England were offering to councillors who signed up to become a Member Champion for Cycling. This included a number of benefits for the local authority, including:

• Assisting the local authority in meeting a wide range of policy targets and objectives
• Facilitating the proper consideration of cycling in the various council meetings and other activities
• Improving relations with external stakeholder groups, particularly those involving local cyclists
• Enabling the Council to tap into best practice in other authorities and to link into the free support available from Cycling England.
• Offering personal and professional development opportunities for those taking on the role.
• Encouraging networking between individual councillors with an interest in promoting cycling.

Cycling England were also offering a funded toolkit to support designated Member Champions for cycling in local highway authorities, including districts with agency agreements covering highways / traffic. This comprised:

• Welcome pack, including advice on best practice, key references and a flexible presentation on how cycling can contribute to a council’s policies and strategies.
• A support hotline to Cycling England’s consultancy team.
• Each Champion can make use of Cycling England consultants’ time in support of their role, involving phone / email support, meetings / site visits as appropriate.
• Cycling Champions email discussion group linking them to Champions in other authorities.
• Regular e-newsletter and publishing advice / guidance for champions
• Free attendance at Cycling England led professional training events for Champions on existing and emerging cycling issues (subject to demand).
• National Standard Level 3 cycle training ‘refresher’ course to bring the Champion up to date on developments in cycle training, including the new Bikeability programme.
  

 Which all sounds really goovy and very helpful. So thinking that it would be useful to know how many Greater Manchester councils had taken up Cycling England's kind offer of support, but having failed to find any details on the various council websites, we submitted Freedom of Information requests to all ten GM councils asking for details.

Now all you devotees of the Freedom of Information Act will know that local government bodies covered by the Act are supposed to respond to requests within 20 working days or at least tell you that they are going to take longer to give you an answer.

So how did the Greater Manchester councils perform?  Well all but one Council answered within the 20 working days with Oldham Council topping the chart responding within a blisteringly fast response of one day. The response times for the other councils were:  Bolton (4 days), Salford (5),  Trafford (6),  Stockport (8), Rochdale (9), Wigan (11), Bury (18), Tameside (18). Manchester didn't manage to respond within the 20 working days timeline and as this blog goes to press the clock is still counting.....

But have any of the local authorities seen fit to take up Cycling England's kind offer of really useful support and appointed a Member Champion for Cycling we hear you ask?  Well the results were:

Bolton:  None (See note 1)

Bury:  None (See note 2)

Manchester: None (See note 3)

Oldham:  Stephen Barrow. Appointed 12/2/2009.  (Email: stephen.barrow@oldham.gov.uk)

Rochdale: Wera Hobhouse.  (Email: wera.hobhouse@rochdale.gov.uk)

Salford: Jim Dawson. Appointed 3/2009.  (Email: councillor.dawson@salford.gov.uk)

Stockport: Stuart Bodsworth. Appointed 5/2008. (Email: cllr.stuart.bodsworth@stockport.gov.uk)

Tameside: None (See note 4).

Trafford: None (See note 5)

Wigan. None


So far only 40% councils within Greater Manchester are making use of the support offered by Cycling England with Bury suggesting that they are "anticipating making an appointment in the very near future" which will take the tally up to 50%.

Five councils have not appointed a Member Champion for Cycling although four of these (Bolton, Manchester, Tameside and Trafford) do have councillors with cycling somewhere within their remits.

Assuming that there were no onerous strings attached to the support being offered by Cycling England it seems very odd that so many Councils have declined to make the most of the support being offered from the national body responsible for promoting cycling in England. Specially at a time when most Council's are claiming that they want to promote and increase cyling levels.

We do hope it's not because the various Councils couldn't meet the "person specification" required to nominate a Councillor as a Member Champion for Cycling which required:

"A councillor who is a regular cyclist. You could be an executive or a nonexecutive member, depending on your Council’s policy on Champions. You will have technical support from competent, senior, officers."

Perhaps readers would like to email the Councillors below and ask them if they intend to join Cycling England's scheme.



Notes:

(1) Bolton Council has not specifically appointed a Member Champion for Cycling, but does have Members assigned to the Bolton Cycle Forum to promote cycling within their political parties and the Authority as a whole.

Members: 
Councillor John Byrne             (Email: john.byrne@bolton.gov.uk)
Councillor Richard Silvester  (Email: richard.silvester@bolton.gov.uk)
Councillor Michael Hollick      (Email: micheal.hollick@bolton.gov.uk)
Councillor David Chadwick   (Email: david.chadwick@bolton.gov.uk)
Councillor John Higson          (Email:  john.higson@bolton.gov.uk)


(2) The Executive Member for Environment & Transport has discussed the matter with senior officers of Bury Council and is anticipating making an appointment in the very near future.


(3)  Lead councillor for cycling is Emily Lomax. Email: cllr.e.lomax@manchester.gov.uk


(4)  The following Members have specific interests within their portfolios:  Alan Whitehead, Andrew Doubleday (Chair of Council Cycle Forum), Barrie Holland (Chair Carbon Reduction Panel).

For Andrew Doubleday and Barrie Holland  email: angela.monks@tameside.gov.uk
Alan Whitehead email jan.jackson@tameside.gov.uk

(5)  the Executive Member for Highways and Transportation, Alan Mitchell, has as part of his remit the promotion of cycling within the borough. He will receive updates from the Cycle Forum, and reports about cycling measures being implemented across the borough.  (Email: alan.mitchell@trafford.gov.uk)