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Kendal Cycle Demonstration Town Update No2
Dear Supporters,
Great news, I've just received the following email from Cycling England setting out the timetable for the bidding process.
''We are happy to announce that the bidding has formally opened for the national competition to find England's first Cycling City and ten new Cycling Towns. Cycling England is now inviting cities and towns keen to revolutionise cycling in their areas to come forward with bids for a share of the £47m funding for the new Demonstration Areas, which forms part of the record £140m funding for cycling announced by Transport Secretary Ruth Kelly in January.
The 11 new towns and city will join the existing 6 Cycling Demonstration Towns, which have pioneered local initiatives such as redesigning and building new cycle routes and training people to cycle safely. By 2012 the expanded network of cycling towns and city is expected to save 16million car journeys a year and create an extra 47million cycle journeys - equivalent to a seven percent increase in national cycling levels.
The deadline for applications will be 31 March 2008 and Cycling England will announce the winning City in early June, along with at least five or six of the ten new Towns. Those areas will begin delivering their programmes in September 2008. The next four to five towns will be announced in autumn 2008''
Please give me a couple of days to go through the application pack and make a draft plan of what we need to do, I'm aiming to get something out to everyone by Friday.
Kind regards,
Mark Brierley
Cycling Development Officer
Dear Supporters,
I’ve now had a chance to look at the bid documents for the next phase of Cycling England’s Cycling Towns scheme. From the pre-requisites and the selection criteria I would conclude that Kendal is in a strong position to place a bid and I would be very disappointed if Kendal did not make the short list and interview stage.
The deadline for the application is the 31st March, with short listed towns being invited to attend an interview / presentation process at the end of May. At this stage I will continue to check our progress with a focus group, but will initiate the establishment of a more formal steering group which will represent the key stakeholders that Cycling England will want to see supporting the bid.
I would be very keen to get in some ‘good news’ cycling stories from the Kendal area over the last year. A key criterion is the impact of travel plans from local employers - how many people now cycle to work etc.
On a completely different point, I’ve been to a meeting with Cumbria highways and SLDC about the state of the Cannel cycle track. Hopefully some much needed repairs will start in the not too distant future. I’ll keep everyone informed.
Thank you all for your support,
Mark Brierley
Cycling Development Officer
Cumbria County Council
The Courts
Carlisle CA3 8NA
Tel: 01228 606740