My main correspondence with Fife Council was initiated through an email to Bill Walker, my MSP, sent via Write to Them. Throughout that conversation, he has been cc'd in the emails. My email to the Council on 18 June suggested that perhaps it was now time for him to contact Transport Scotland since the main trunk road past the village, the A985, was clearly the principal barrier to progress for cyclists and pedestrians in the village. He responded on 22 June:
Dear Steven,
I hope your are well and thank you for keeping me up to date with the situation.
I see that your have been in correspondence with XX and XX (names removed - SH) as I initially suggested.
I hope that you have had some useful discussions regarding the provision of cycling routes around Fife.
Clearly, this is a matter for Fife Council, subject always to budget availability, but as you can see I am copying in XX to ask him if he feels that the best way forward would be, as you suggest, for him to contact the appropriate office within the Scottish Government.
I hope some progress can be made as suitable funding becomes available. Recently, in Parliament, I have supported a couple of initiatives regarding the improvement of cycling routes which would provide some advantages in the promotion of cycling.
Slainte,
Bill
I replied. The links in the text below weren't in the email. I've added them in case anyone is ever interested in following up my references, which I think would be obvious to Bill.
Dear Bill
Thanks for you email. I noticed that you had signed Alison Johnstone's motion supporting National Bike Week, which is very welcome although I'm sorry to say that as far as substantially increasing participation in cycling goes, National Bike Week is harmless but insubstantial fluff. I should also say, just for balance, that I noted that you did not support her motion (S4M-02641) supporting Pedal on Parliament and noting that the Scottish Government’s report on Meeting the Emissions Reduction Targets 2010-22 proposed allocating £1.32 billion over 11 years for active travel, and suggested that 10% of the transport budget should be spent on active travel. I think that sort of funding commitment is what is needed to properly promote cycling in the ways that Fife Council would clearly like to but is unable to.
Yes, the correspondence with XX and his colleagues has been a useful discussion although that is as far as it goes. Not that I was expecting anything concrete to happen immediately but there has been a useful discussion of positions and plans that has good general information on what might happen but has been light on specifics about when. Still, it's early days and the new administration in Fife must still be establishing its priorities. I was cheered slightly by Labour's national transport team saying that "Labour councils across the country should be backing cycling in every way possible"* although I'm not so starry-eyed that I won't wait to see how that translates into funding locally.
I do agree that it all comes down to budget availability but that is more a matter of political priorities than the total available for spending. At the moment, the Scottish Government spends just 1% of its transport budget on cycling. I was disappointed that just this week, while the Scottish Government was allocating £105 million for 'shovel ready' projects, none of that went to the £6m of shovel ready cycling projects that Sustrans has waiting for funding. Sadly, suitable funding was readily available but the Scottish Government decided it had other priorities.
I have to disagree, based on the exchanges I've had with XX and his colleagues, and based on my own experience of cycling anywhere out of Limekilns with my children, that this is clearly a matter for Fife Council. Many of the issues I have raised with Council relate directly to the A985, about which the Council can do nothing without the support of Transport Scotland. That is why I came to the conclusion that little progress will be made without commitment from Transport Scotland to improve and open up access to the paths along, and to improve opportunities to cross, the A985.
I hope it will be possible to bring Transport Scotland into the discussion.
Best wishes
Steven
* This comment was made in the course of a discussion on Twitter preserved here.
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