Cycle Carlisle

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The Sustrans Carlisle Connect2 cycle and pedestrian route from Currock to Kingstown is in serious jeopardy. Unless the City and County Councils get their act together rapidly (by the end of February) Sustrans will withdraw the almost one million pounds of People’s Lottery money which was due to come to Carlisle after the public voted for it and give it to a reserve project where there is more political will to make it happen.

Information can be found about this in the articles in Tuesday’s News and Star:

http://www.newsandstar.co.uk/news/4-4-million-cross-carlisle-cycle-route-doomed-as-talks-collapse-1.806820?referrerPath=home/2.1962

and the Cumberland News.

http://www.newsandstar.co.uk/cyclists-slam-councillors-over-collapse-of-cross-carlisle-scheme-1.807929?referrerPath=home/2.1962

Basically the route, if it can be saved, will provide a safe traffic free route to walk and cycle across the city. It would include renovating /replacing the unsafe and very unpleasant bridge over the railway from Currock to Denton Holme. Original plans had also included a new pedestrian and cycle crossing over the river Eden but the council had already removed this from the scheme, putting the project “at risk”. There were still plans to improve the cycle route from the Eden to Kingstown. If this route happened it would benefit the health and well being of current and future generations in Carlisle, provide families a safe place to take their children on bicycles, improve access for people in wheelchairs and people with push chairs, help ease traffic congestion and help the environment.

Unfortunately our two councils cannot seem get their act together to work together to make this scheme happen. The City Council should have set up a steering group and was required to have ensured some basic ground work and surveys were carried out by the end of February, but have failed to do this.

They have had two years to get the steering group set up but could not even manage this. There seems to be a combination of incompetence and lack of political will to make it happen. I know that the council officers involved have been working their socks off to make it happen, but need councillors to vote yes to releasing funding for surveys etc.

What can you do?

We urgently need everyone who cares about this to contact their city and county councillors to ask them what are they doing to make it happen. Find your City Councillor contact details here:

http://cmis.carlisle.gov.uk/CMIS/Members.aspx

Find your County Councillor here:

http://councilportal.cumbria.gov.uk/mgMemberIndex.aspx?bcr=1

Please also write to our MP, John Stevenson. We are asking him if he can intervene to save this. You can email him at office@johnstevensonmp.co.uk

If you need any more information please email us at (cyclecarlisle@hotmail.co.uk)

Thanks very much for supporting us.

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Members of Cycle Carlisle recently wrote to their MP- John Stevenson to request that he takes action to encouraging more people to use their bicycles for work.
At the moment, employers can pay their staff up to 40 pence per mile for business journeys in their own vehicle which the employee will receive tax free, but if the same journey is made by bicycle the employer can only pay the employee 20 pence per mile, any more and the employee has to pay tax on it.
Clearly this is an anomaly which has the effect of not encouraging cycling for short journeys, and so the “business as usual” choice is more likely to me made, ie save your effort, get in your car and claim 40 pence per mile.
We asked John Stevenson to write to the Chancellor to address this discrepancy.