Scripts

Thursday 4 April 2013

Sheffield Fails to Acquire any Funding to Improve Junctions for Cyclists

Email to Les Sturch:


Dear Les Sturch,

As you may know the The Times have been running their prominent Cyclesafe campaign to promote and increase safety for cyclists. At the heart of their campaign was a call to identify and allocate funding to fix problem junctions. Sheffield's infamous University roundabout was identified as one of the country's black-spots, and featured prominently in the following article "Cyclists' Horror Stories

Cyclists' Horror Stories

Given the national exposure of Sheffield, I was surprised to learn that NO funding whatsoever has been allocated to Sheffield from the recent £40m government budget that was announced.

road.cc/cycle-safety-junctions

Did Sheffield make an application for any of this funding?


Yours Sincerely

Stan Fichele


Response:



Dear Mr Fichele,

Thanks for your email below to which I have been asked to respond. 

Sheffield City Council did not bid for any funding on this occasion.

As you are clearly aware, Brookhill roundabout was the priority junction identified in Sheffield.  To implement an on-road solution here, that would be ‘satisfactory’ for all road users, would cost many millions of pounds.  Quite apart from the large sum of funding required, it would not have been possible to design, consult and build a scheme before the end of this financial year, as required under the bidding process.  The Department for Transport were looking for schemes that were well advanced and effectively ready to implement.  Sheffield does not have a scheme ready to implement straight away, with 50% match funding guaranteed, that would have met the DfT criteria.

I trust that the above satisfactorily explains why we did not bid for funding on this occasion.

However, you may be interested to know that it is our intention to make a bid for the Cycle City Ambitions Grant, the requirements for which are not quite so onerous.  I cannot, of course, guarantee success.

Regards,


Dick Skelton

Transport Strategy
Room G32
Town Hall
SHEFFIELD
S1 2HH

Tel:  0114 2734479

7 comments:

  1. Do please let us know if you get a response! - Simon, CycleSheffield

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  2. Actually I wrote to my local Sheffield MP - Ian Auckland !

    Here is his reply to my letter...

    Dear Mr Taylor

    Thank you for your e-mail. I see you have contacted Bob and Denise and as we are party colleagues the usual form would be for one of us to reply and since I shadow Transport at the moment the reply will be given by me

    Personally I'm aware of Norman Bakers announcement which I very much welcome. In addition South Yorkshire has secured £25m of investment from the Sustainable Transport Fund money in part to be used to improve Road Conditions for Cyclists . As a member of the Transport Authority I helped frame the bid.

    I have contacted Transport Officers to find out if Sheffield is to bid for some of the £15m and what is on the list. I certainly think we should bid if we are eligible, and will return to you when a reply is received. Meanwhile if you will let me have any nominations I will lobby accordingly.

    As you may be aware all the Highway under the Control of the Council is to be brought up to a good standard by late 2017 and whilst this is on an "as is" basis minor works and improvements should be possible in many cases

    Thank you for your kind invitation to join you. For many years when living in York the cycle was my main means of urban transport though in Sheffield I have only been an infrequent leisure rider. However I'm pleased to say having had the bike overhauled and fitted with panniers and mudguards the cycle is again my choice of transport locally from my home in Norton say to your place or elsewhere in Graves Park Ward. So as well as being healthy and probably a time saver, it is one less short car journey, and many car journeys are short, and fewer short car journeys assist all road users. However let me confess that with a little more practice and confidence I could face the commute into Town at least for now the return trip would be beyond me! I am aware though that trips to and from the centre of town are on the increase and that hills in themselves are not barriers to continuing to increase cycle trips.

    Thank you for contacting us

    Kind Regards

    Ian Auckland

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    Replies
    1. I then wrote back to him ...

      Dear Mr Auckland,

      Thank you very much for replying to my earlier email and thank you very much for asking for my nominations. I think the biggest issue with our provision is the lack of continuity and their poor design. This is I fell why cyclists use the roads rather than cycle lanes. Cycle lanes just seem to be bolted on where they can be and often make no sense.. Two good examples are
      1. The end of Shoreham St (near the Toyota garage). If you follow the path down from JE James cycles, wanting to head into town along Lancing road you come to a pelican crossing (which has cycle lights). When the light changes green you cross it, onto the pavement on the other side, which is a cycle path. You are then signed across Shoreham street. The bad design here is in the lights. The lights have let you pass but have also let the cars driving up shoreham street from halfords through which means turning right becomes dangerous.
      2. At the bottom of Asline Road (its actually on London road). Again you follow the pelican crossing across London road but on the other side is a cycle lane. Sadly its just the footpath that's been painted red and is not wide enough for both pedestrians and cyclists. To make it even more dangerous, its outside the school gates of Lowfield Primary school. This is an accident waiting to happen. Making it worse, there's a super cycle path heading up Asline Road but getting to it is both dangerous and difficult, as a result people would rather cycle on the road. Our cycle paths just seem to be little stretches that are tagged together by bad an often dangerous sections.

      Another dangerous road on my commute is that of Little London Road. The danger here is the sheer state of the road, the potholes are so bad cyclists are forced into the centre of the road to avoid the dangers of the pot holes.

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    2. These are my favourite three that I encounter on a daily basis. Looking at the Times website there appear to be many more the blue dots that denote accidents and the white ones are where other cyclists have concerns. I think if money is to be spent this and other research should be considered. I'm sure if asked, other cyclists would have equally dangerous nominations.
      http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/public/cyclesafety/contact/


      >As you may be aware all the Highway under the Control of the Council is to be brought up to a good standard by late 2017 and whilst this is on an "as is" basis minor works and improvements should be possible in many cases

      Yes I was aware of this work and also welcome it. Of course this will help a lot. Like the section on Little London road there are many roads that are dangerous to cycle because of pot holes and patching. One particular dangerous bit is on the A61 at Meersbrook. This is widely used by cyclists and is so bumpy ! I remember once driving down this stretch of road, a cyclist pulled out in front of me, he seemed to swerve to miss something.

      >Personally I'm aware of Norman Bakers announcement which I very much welcome. In addition South Yorkshire has secured £25m of investment from the Sustainable Transport Fund money in part to be used to improve Road Conditions for Cyclists . As a member of the Transport Authority I helped frame the bid.

      Again this is fantastic news and thanks for achieving this, I had not heard about this funding. How will you go about utilising this cash ? whilst I am no expert I feel very passionate about cyclists safety and wonder if I may be able to help ? If I can please do not hesitate to contact me.

      Once again, thank you very much for responding to my email if I can be of further assistance then please do not hesitate to contact me. I look forward to hearing about the potential of Sheffield bidding for "the Times" money and in the way which other monies will be spent.

      he then replied....

      Thank you Simon I'll see how things develop with a bid though meanwhile I'll get comments on your suggested problem areas.


      after that I heard nothing ! Maybe I should have chased him ? Either way - bit disappointing.

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    3. Hi Simon, The LSTF funding isn't all it's made out to be I'm afraid. An example of something it funds is this: http://notdriving.co.uk/

      Just an example. I've been meaning to examine the Sheffield LSTF schemes more thoroughly but haven't had time.

      Matt

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  3. @SImon, Cheers for posting the additional correspondence. Nice to know that Ian is a cyclist and is keen to see improvements....

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  4. Ian Auckland is a Lib Dem councillor not a local MP.

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