Thirteen ‘biking boroughs’ in the capital are in line to share £4m of new funding to help them boost cycling in their local area and create ‘cycling communities’ in outer London.
The funding, which covers a three year period, are being provided by Transport for London to help councils “create a local culture of cycling” with TfL also promising to supply “extra support and expertise” to help boost the take-up of cycling.
The 13 boroughs – Barking & Dagenham, Bexley, Brent, Bromley, Croydon, Ealing, Haringey, Havering, Hillingdon, Hounslow, Kingston, Merton and Redbridge – will be able to submit bids for a share of the money from next Monday.
In a statement Mayor of London and TfL Chair Boris Johnson said the funding would “enable our friends in outer London to develop exciting ways to make cycling bloom in their boroughs making it easier to replace some short car journeys with pedal power.”
During the 2008 election the Mayor promised a “cycling revolution” in the capital and has overseen implementation of the London cycle hire scheme first cproposed by predecessor Ken Livingstone.
Earlier this month Mr Johnson reversed his decision to cut the amount of money given to boroughs for local transport projects which opponents had warned would damage efforts to encourage cycling.
Green Party London Assembly Jenny Jones, who was a vocal critic of the Mayor’s original decision to cut local funding, said he had “realised that his cycling revolution for London will stall if he carries on concentrating on zone one and forgets the outer boroughs”
However Jones expressed concerns that “13 boroughs aren’t enough to make the sort of difference that London needs – it has to involve all 32 boroughs, with consistent, reliable spending.”
