Birmingham councillors backing cycling

As one of the UK’s eight cycling cities, cycling in Birmingham should always be a hot topic. This was particularly the case when the Conservative Party Conference is scheduled to take place and the CTC and Push Bikes have organised a mass cycle ride around the town.

While this ride was geared specifically towards Conservative party representatives, this did not stop local Labour councillors turning up in force and demonstrating how important cycling is for them in Birmingham.

Robbie Gillett, CTC’s Space for Cycling Campaigner, who was present and instrumental in the running of the ride, took the time out to question the councillors on their thoughts about cycling, as well as recording the Conservative Cycling Minister’s address to the 150 cyclists who took part in the ride, all of which is provided below.

Prior to the Minister’s speech, Robbie discussed with the Birmingham Labour councillors their involvement with cycling and why it was important for them. Speaking to Cllr Lisa Tricket, cabinet member for Birmingham’s Smart, Green, Sustainable City and lead on the Birmingham Cycle Revolution, the councillor focussed on the importance of not only just having a long term plan for cycling, but also the funding.

Cllr Trickett: We have a broad partnership which includes Push Bikes, CTC and others working with us to actually revolutionise how people move around this city and a key element of that is actually from cycling. Birmingham has a history of being a city of the car. We want to give car and pedestrian equal precedence in terms of the way we move about Birmingham.

RG: How does this relate to funding?

As a city we are going to have a long term vision. What we’d like to see is Government join with us on that."
Cllr Lisa Trickett

Cllr Trickett: We’ve been really fortunate in securing as part of a programme with the City Council, we have £24 million as part of our Cycle Revolution.  We would like to see cycling and the potential to grow cycling, as a fundamental part of government funding and actually to enable us to have a long term plans, so that we’re not just bidding for two, years, three years….but have an actually long term plan that puts in investment into cycling alongside other transport modes.

RG:  What’s the problem with short-term funding?

Cllr Trickett: OK, short-term funding’s great - and I don’t want to give back any of the money we have received as a City Council.  Inevitably, having to spend money on infrastructure in a 2 – 3 year periods, we learn as we go long, and at times you have to compromise, because you’re having to compromise on how long you have to spend the money.

If we have a 10, or 20 year known, secured funding stream that we knew there was overall a cycling plan that was taken forward alongside other transport plans. Currently as a City Council we are going to be developing a Mobility Action Plan that will set cycling alongside cars, trains, buses." 

Cllr James McKay, Cabinet Member in Birmingham for Social Cohesion and Community Safety, backed up Cllr Trickett who pressed for a consistent and proportionally equal share of transport funding:

“There’s huge investment going on thanks to a partnership between the city council and central government. 

What we’ve got to get down over the next few years is to move away from one-off grant funding and to make cycling a mainstream part of transport budgets."
Cllr James McKay

“We spend billions of pounds a year on the car, we spend a fraction of that on the bike.  If we could shift just a little bit of that across, we’d have massive public health benefits, massive safety benefits and we’d be a happier, healthier, fitter country as a result.”

Pressing the point for how improved infrastructure would encourage more to cycle, Cllr Tahir Ali, cabinet member for Development, Transport and the Economy, Birmingham City Council said:  

“Cycling is important because so many hundreds of thousands of journeys in Birmingham are less than a mile, and it’s important use alternative means.  But it’s also important that the infrastructure is right and up to a standard which [will attract] people wanting to cycle now and also future generations.” 

Cllr Victoria Quinn lamented the slow uptake of cycling in Birmingham and pressed for the need to make cycling a normal part of everyday life for all ages:

“I chair Birmingham’s Transport and Economy Committee and I’ve been working for the last two years to get cycling happening in Birmingham.  Birmingham is at the centre of the UK’s transport network and the fact that cycling isn’t bigger on that agenda is really quite disappointing.”

“I want Birmingham to be a place where it’s easy to get on a bike as I am today. On my way to work, coming back from work, not having to have high viz clothing or special protection but just so that everyone, at every age can feel as natural on a bike, and about getting to the places that they need to get to easily and cheaply.“

Recognising the strong presence of Labour councillors Robert Goodwill MP, Cycling Minister, recognised that there was a cross party consensus on the importance of cycling while also recognising that the Prime Minister’s “cycling revolution” had still not properly started.

“I’m from Yorkshire, as you may have noticed, and it was great this year to see Yorkshire put cycling on the world map with the Tour de France.  And we’ve also got the Tour de Yorkshire starting up next year as well so for those competitive cyclists, that will be a great opportunity and for those who like to come and watch cycling, that’s an even better opportunity to enjoy our hospitality.

“It’s great being here in Birmingham for the Conservative Party conference, it’s also good to see Richard Burden here, because we spend our time trying to find things that we disagree about and although there are a number of those, cycling isn’t one of them and we really need to get the Cycling Revolution that the Prime Minister talked about last year on the road.

“It’s good to see not too much lycra in site and the sort of people that we ought to get on their bikes, are those who maybe don’t look as good in lycra as Richard does, those who use their bikes in their everyday lives.

“Cycling is great for your health, it’s great to deal with transport problems and it’s great to see cities like Birmingham really addressing the cycling agenda.”

“I’m only sorry that I’m not with you on the ride, but I do go on the Westminster bike ride, which we have this year from the Dutch embassy - we’ve a lot to learn from them - in Westminster.

“And if you saw me unfolding this Brompton, you’ll know that I’m no stranger to the Brompton bicycle, and ride almost every day in London saving a fortune in ministerial cars along the way.”

Clearly as the debate raged on in Birmingham this week, cycling is an important matter not just on the national but also the local stage. With the Cycling and Walking Delivery Plan due out at the beginning of October and a parliamentary debate taking place on 16 October, the party conference season has seen only the starting shots of what will be an ongoing battle between the main political parties up until next May’s election.