We wrote an open letter to Transport Secretary, Mark Harper calling for the government to reverse the cuts made to active travel funding.
We must continue to invest in making it easier for everyone to walk, wheel and cycle.
Failure to do so undermines what should be a dedicated path to achieving the country's Net Zero targets.
These cuts strip away more affordable options to travel for millions of people during these financially tough times.
And we cannot allow that to happen.
Delivering your letter
We’ve taken this ask straight to Westminster, delivering your letter and demanding the government makes affordable active travel options accessible to everyone.
Read the letter we sent
The Rt Hon Mark Harper MP
Secretary of State for Transport
Department for Transport
Great Minster House
33 Horseferry Road
London
SW1P 4DR
Dear Secretary of State for Transport,
Re: Cuts to active travel funding
We were dismayed to hear your 9 March announcement of a two-thirds cut to promised capital investment in infrastructure for walking, wheeling and cycling, from £308 million to only £100 million for the next two years.
This will halt schemes to improve active travel in cities and towns across England, and presents a significant risk to make the National Cycle Network a traffic-free, safe and accessible Network for everyone.
We want to emphasise, that despite local authorities being encouraged by the Government to build new safe infrastructure for walking, wheeling and cycling, they are now having that support ripped from under them.
Over the past few years, we have been making our cities and towns more liveable for everyone, but these cuts to funding for walking, wheeling and cycling put the brakes on that progress.
As you know, in this context, active travel isn’t a ‘nice to have’.
Walking, wheeling and cycling must be at the heart of the UK’s transport decarbonisation plan.
These cuts will see fewer schemes to make roads safe, less accessible pavements and crossings, and fewer new cycle routes.
It will take far longer to address barriers preventing people from walking and wheeling.
England itself will lag shamefully far behind other UK nations and London, where per capita investment for active travel is many times higher.
The Sustrans Walking and Cycling Index found that people walking, wheeling and cycling took 14.6 million cars off the road in 2021, saving 2.5 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions.
In the same year, active travel contributed £36.5 billion to the UK economy.
These cuts to a vital area of transport undermine what should be a dedicated path to Net Zero and a more affordable option to travel for millions during these financially fearful times.
Over a third of people on low incomes and a similar proportion of disabled people do not have access to a car.
For many that do, it is becoming prohibitively expensive to run one, so right now, this funding is more important than ever.
These cuts will also make it impossible to meet the Government’s own target that 50% of urban journeys be walked or cycled by 2030.
Active travel routes, including the National Cycle Network, provide green corridors to cool our cities and help people access nature.
Safe, accessible active travel infrastructure is a matter of people being able to get to work, get to school, and get about as anyone would wish to, without ever-growing costs.
These cuts will impact those who would have benefited most and limits their choice to travel healthily, cheaply and emissions-free.
We have seen great progress in active travel in recent years, thanks in part to the commitments made in the 2019 Conservative Party manifesto, active travel funding announced by then-Chancellor Rishi Sunak, and the ongoing commitments to Net Zero.
These cuts take us further from the solutions we need.
If we are to have hope of coming through both this cost of living and climate crisis, we implore you to listen and re-evaluate plans for active travel funding, before it is too late.
Yours Sincerely,
[Signed]
