Chester Cycling Campaign

CHESTER CYCLE CITY - OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS

Chester Cycle Campaign was delighted to hear that our bid to become a 'Cycle Demonstration Town' was successful. Campaign members formed part of the delegation presenting the case to Cycle England on 2 June 2008 which also included Chester City Cabinet Member Neil Ritchie and Chris Hardy, the acting Chester City Chief Executive, and Tom McCabe a leading Cheshire Director as well as several other senior Council officials from Cheshire and Chester City.

The evidence is that cycling could boost the economy, improve the quality of life and health of many people, and ensure that the Chester City centre remains vibrant and prosperous.

SO WHAT IS CYCLE CITY ALL ABOUT?

The Department for Transport and Cycling England invited local highway authorities to bid for Cycle Demonstration Town status. Ten new Cycle towns and cities have been designated to follow the six that were designated in 2005. As a result of Chester's successful bid, we can now expect several million pounds to be spent on cycling over the next three years.

WHAT IS IT NOT ABOUT?

Being in favour of cycling is NOT anti-car, and indeed most cyclists use cars for many of their journeys anyway. Cycling is just another (albeit a healthy and pollution-free) way of getting around. Because there are a lot of cheap and easy things to do, we do not feel that there is any need for significant changes to our roads. So the bid is NOT about taking space off motorists. In addition we recognise the potential for conflict with pedestrians, so we do NOT want anything (such as shared pavements) that would increase this conflict. While Chester Cycle Campaign supports the Connect2 projects, there is no direct relationship with the Cycle Demonstration City concept, and it can be developed and implemented independently of Connect2

Cycling England are reluctant to fund large infrastructure projects, so the emphasis is NOT about bidding for pieces of kit, but is more focussed on hearts and minds and small improvements - in fact, exactly the sort of things that would do so much to boost the uptake of cycling in Chester. However, in order to unlock funding, some greenways will be included.

WHAT HAVE THE EXISTING CYCLE DEMONSTRATION TOWNS DONE?

Each town has done something different, but all have seen very substantial increases in cycling. The links below show what they have done:

WHAT IS INCLUDED IN THE PLANS FOR CHESTER?

The Chester Cycling Campaign met with Chester City Council officers to help decide the projects which were included in the Cycle Demonstration Town bid. Apart from compulsory items such as cycle training (see the guidance for bidders), Chester also included significant elements for completing the Greenways and for publicity about the scheme. If you would like further details about our involvement, please contact Peter Black at Chester Cycle Campaign.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

Governance arrangements for the project are now being established. The Cycle Campaign hopes to play a role in ensuring that the money is spent effectively. We believe that as the largest membership based cycling organisation in Chester, the Chester Cycling Campaign could make an important contribution to the CDT project by:

providing general guidance on priorities,
utilising the detailed local knowledge of our members to make suggestions as to the content and delivery of the programme,
obtaining and collating the views of one group of active cyclists on matters requiring consultation,
using the Campaign's various communication channels with our members to help publicise and promote the project, and
participating in the governance arrangements of the project.

We would like to ensure that cycling plays a proper and effective role in the lives of people covered by the new Chester and West Cheshire local authority.