Government earmarks £29m for green travel city

The government has this week announced plans to invest up to £29m in England's first "Sustainable Travel City". The money will help to fund improvements to public transport, cycling networks and services for commuters.

The move follows the successful completion of three pilot projects in Darlington, Peterborough and Worcester which the government said had helped cut car use by almost 10 per cent over the past five years.

Transport minister Paul Clark said the Sustainable Travel Towns initiative, which saw £10m invested over five years in green travel programmes for the three towns, demonstrated that improved education and facilities could help cut car use and congestion in urban centres.

"Giving people a real alternative to the car not only reduces congestion and carbon emissions but also increases the amount of exercise they take," he said. "The opportunity to become England's first Sustainable Travel City will be a chance to see these benefits on a much larger scale."

He added that the government was now seeking to roll out the initiative on a larger scale by inviting bids from nine of the UK's most congested areas: Greater Manchester, West Midlands, West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, Tyne and Wear, Merseyside, Bristol, Nottingham and Leicester.

The Department for Transport (DfT) said that the aim of the new funding was to help develop a flagship city that could demonstrate how initiatives such as dedicated bus routes, car sharing schemes, improved cycle lanes, travel planning services for commuters, and 20mph zones can provide a cost-effective means of cutting congestion and carbon emissions.

It added that the adoption of these measures in the three pilot towns had resulted in a 14 per cent increase in walking and 12 per cent increase in cycling in the past five years.

The DfT also announced that an additional £3m of funding would also be made available to smaller local authority areas to similarly help them roll out their own green travel schemes.