Money for county to improve walking and cycling

Worcestershire has been given more than £160,000 to help improve walking and cycling routes.

Worcestershire County Council will receive the money from the ‘capability building fund’ set up by Active Travel England – the government body set up to distribute funding to improve walking and cycling.

The money will be used for training and to develop new walking and cycling routes for Worcester, Malvern, Pershore and Droitwich and Bromsgrove.

An active travel plan for Evesham is nearing completion and the council is currently working on a new plan for Redditch.

Last year, Worcestershire County Council was given the worst possible ‘zero’ rating by Active Travel England, the government body responsible for handling walking and cycling money, and told to improve.

Councillor Mike Rouse, the county council’s cabinet member for highways and transport, said: “We’re continually working to make improvements to our cycling, walking and wheeling network in the county.

“The zero rating we received last year was difficult to take but we’re now pushing forward to ensure we move away from this rating as soon as possible.

“A lot of work has already taken place and this additional funding will go a long way towards delivering our ambitious plans and opening up further avenues for support and funding.”

In October last year, Active Travel England said it would be “withholding funding” until improvements were made and barred the council from making any further bids for money.

Last year, the council was asked by the government to rate its own on active travel giving itself a ‘one’ rating – which meant it had shown “some local leadership and support with basic plans and isolated interventions” to improve walking and cycling – but the government pushed the score down further to zero.

The damning letter told the council that the government body’s funding was “limited” and it would only be handing it out where it knew the money would be well spent and the county council had not demonstrated the “minimum levels of local leadership and/or delivery track record.”

The rating came after two bids by the county council for active travel money fell way short of what was expected with the authority receiving just £784,000 of the £1.3 million it bid for.