Petition for more funding cycling infrastructure presented

Supporters of TACC presented their petition to Councillor John Woodman, Cabinet Member for Highways at Somerset County Council on 10 January. The petition (both paper and online) is signed by 1800 local residents. The petition asks Somerset County Council (SCC) and Somerset West and Taunton Council (SWT) to prioritise and develop a major bid for Government funds for cycling infrastructure.

Presentation of TACC petition to John Woodman

Pip Sheard, Chair of TACC said: “Our work shows that many people would like to cycle but safe infrastructure is needed to enable them to. More cycling will create large environmental, health and social benefits.
 
 

In their Climate Emergency Framework documents, both local Councils identify more cycling as a way to reduce local CO2 emissions from transport calculated at 50% of all Somerset West and Taunton’s emissions. Swopping the car for a bike on a local journey reduces your carbon emissions to zero.

Over the summer, TACC supporters spent a considerable amount of time working with Somerset County Council officers and cycling the town looking at current cycling routes and how they could be improved. Some of this work has been sent to the Government in a document called the Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plan (LCWIP) but now the proposed improvements need funding.”

TACC asks SCC to:
1. Lobby the Government working with our MP to ask them to set up a national dedicated cycling fund as part of the Government’s developing Infrastructure Plan.
2. Ask the Government that this national cycling fund be sufficient so towns like Taunton, Bridgwater and Yeovil all have a serious chance of getting funds.
3. To support the bid for a Somerset County Council budget for cycling at the Council’s February budget meeting.
4. To write to his officers to ask them to adopt the new proposed Department for Transport Cycle Design Advice and Chapter Six of Traffic Signs Manual, which reflects some of the guidance.

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