A landmark year for cycling - Phillip Darnton, Chairman, Cycling England sums up 2007 so far

As many of you know, 2007 has been a busy period in the world of cycling and we’d like to take this opportunity to share some of our joint successes with you.

This year marked the national roll-out of the new cycling proficiency - Bikeability. Up and down the country, thousands more children are now getting on their bikes and learning the skills they need to cycle safely on today’s busy roads.

The official launch in March was a resounding success with extensive media coverage and high level political backing from Ministers, Mayors, councillors and crucially from children, parents and teachers. Many local authorities are now delivering Bikeability ensuring that the number of accredited Bikeability schemes across the country has topped 50. We would encourage all local authorities to follow suit and maximise the chances for all children to take part in Bikeability.

Our Cycling Demonstration Towns have also continued to make great progress this year. We’re now looking for the next generation of cycling towns and cities and would encourage interested local authorities to attend our conference on 21st November.

We have produced the first economic evidence that investment in cycling offers real value for money, and that even modest national increases in cycling can release hundreds of millions of pounds worth of benefits. A 20% increase - that’s a return to the levels of cycling seen during the 1990’s – would release cumulative benefits of over £500m, including congestion, environment and public health benefits. This is not just a national picture, but can be matched locally given the right investments.

Building on this solid evidence, and evidence from our current successful programmes - our Young People programme and Cycling Demonstration Town programme in particular, Cycling England has produced a funding strategy for the next four years called Bike for the Future II. This also used many of the good ideas and suggestions that local authorities submitted to us during the summer, for which I would like to offer sincere thanks. The final papers and executive summaries can be found on our website. The strategy now rests with the Department awaiting the outcome of the Comprehensive Spending Review.

It is an exciting time for us at Cycling England and for cycling in general, particularly following our submission of Bike for the Future II. We look forward to working with you in the near future to continue to encourage more people to cycling, more safely, more often.

Phillip Darnton
Chairman, Cycling England

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