More than 300,000
school children will learn to cycle safely, competently and
confidently on the road over the next year, thanks to nearly £11m
worth of government funding allocated today, Norman Baker has
announced.
Funding has been allocated to local highway authorities and
schools across the country for the national Bikeability scheme
which provides cycling proficiency for the 21st century.
As well as the £11m of grants agreed for this year, a further
£24m will be allocated by the Department for Transport over the
following two years. This includes an extra £2m to support
expansion of the scheme on top of money originally earmarked for
Bikeability. Additional local contributions worth around £11.5m
are expected over the next three years.
Local Transport Minister Norman Baker said:
“Cycling brings many benefits, and as a government we are keen to
encourage its uptake as a healthy and sustainable transport
choice, which eases congestion and helps cut carbon.
“It is vital that the next generation of cyclists is well
prepared with the skills and confidence to ride safely and well on
modern roads and this funding ensures that many more thousands of
children will receive the solid grounding to set them up as
lifelong cyclists.”
Big winners this year include Merseytravel who are receiving over
£400,000, Hampshire, where children will benefit from almost
£500,000 worth of training, Staffordshire receiving more than
£350,000 and Kent, where total funding is over £380,000.
The Department has also published a report looking at the number
of children cycling to school since the introduction of the
Bikeability scheme five years ago. In March the scheme celebrated
five years of delivering training for children in schools.
This report shows that where there is a longer history of
delivering cycle training, a higher proportion of children are
cycling to secondary school. Further, those authorities that have
received higher levels of Bikeability funding have seen larger
increases in cycling to secondary school.
Notes to Editors
1. A total of £10,977,936 has been allocated by the Department
to those delivering Bikeability training in 2012/13. A full
breakdown of the allocations by Local Authority and school can be
found here: http://content.bikeability.org.uk/publications/ 2.
Funding was allocated according to bids received from Local
Highways Authorities and schools qualifying as School Games
Organiser Host Schools. 3. £11m has been allocated in each of the
years 2013/14 and 2014/15. An additional £2m will be shared
between these two years to support expansion of the scheme;
approximately £700,000 in 2013/14 and £1.3m in 2014/15. 4. The
full cycling to school report can be found here:
http://www.dft.gov.uk/bikeability/wp-content/uploads/120320_Cycling_to_School_Bikeability_Data_Report_v_final.pdf
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