Rural Cycling Infrastructure

Layla Moran Excerpts

Tuesday 10th December 2024 Westminster Hall

[Freddie van Mierlo (Henley and Thame) (LD)]

I beg to move,

That this House has considered cycling infrastructure in rural areas.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Vaz. I thank the Minister for being here to listen to this important debate, and I draw attention to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests. I am a member of Oxfordshire county council.

During my time living in the Netherlands as a young student, not so many years ago, I experienced at first hand the ease of cycling. Villages and towns are interconnected by safe cycle routes, which make taking a bike the obvious choice. I fondly remember cycling from my university in Leiden to the beach in Katwijk. Never once did I feel concerned about the quality of roads or any danger; never once did I feel the need to take a car.

Later, living in Brussels, I saw the stark differences between the traditionally cycle-friendly Flemish region and the car-dominated capital city. However, conscious policy decisions are changing cities. Brussels, like many capital cities across Europe, including our own, is now reclaiming road space from private motor vehicles and giving it over to active travel.

I am proud to be part of the administration in Oxfordshire that pedestrianised the famous Broad Street, much to the criticism of local Conservatives, and is rolling out further measures across the city. These policy decisions in cities demonstrate that there is no natural order to transport infrastructure. Transport choices are made consciously and by design. Although much more needs to be done in cities and towns, rural areas risk being left behind, and the consequences are paid in lives lost and lives ruined.

[Layla Moran (Oxford West and Abingdon) (LD)]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend and constituency neighbour for giving way, and I congratulate him on securing this debate. He talked about connecting villages. In Oxford West and Abingdon we have Botley and Eynsham, which are both growing in population, but whenever designs are put forward, they are often missing the pots of money. Even though we tried to get a design linked to the expansion of the A40, we were told that we could not, because if we did, that bid would fail. That is entirely the opposite of what we would expect from a modal shift. Does my hon. Friend agree that the funding pots available and how they connect are at odds with what the Government say they want to do, particularly regarding a modal shift towards biking and other forms of active travel?

[Freddie van Mierlo]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right that funding is key to resolving these issues. In particular, slashing the active travel fund from £200 million to £50 million, as the Conservatives did in 2023, was shameful.

While much more needs to be done in towns and cities, more also needs to be done in rural areas. Mortality rates on rural roads are 2.7 times higher per mile cycled than on urban roads. If the Government continue to ignore rural areas in policy development, it could have devastating consequences.

--- Later in debate ---

[Layla Moran]

The Minister has moved on to the “how”, but I wonder whether it is worth reflecting for slightly longer on the “why”. With my Chair of the Health and Social Care Committee hat on, I wonder whether he noted that the chief medical officer’s annual report last year on an ageing society mentioned cycling 13 times, in the context of meeting the needs of an ageing population. He might also have noted that rural areas age faster than urban areas because of demographic shifts. And he might also have noted that in the 2022 annual report, cycling was mentioned 88 times in the context of air pollution.

I note that the Government’s life mission is for people to live “well for longer.” To what extent is the Minister’s Department planning to be part of the delivery of that mission, and how is he making that happen?

[Simon Lightwood]

I thank the hon. Member for that intervention. I can assure her that the Department for Transport is working closely with Departments across Government; we want to break down the silos of Departments and work on our collective missions. I have already had discussions with the Department of Health and Social Care and Sir Chris Whitty regarding our contribution, and I will continue to have such discussions. I absolutely recognise that active travel can be fundamental when it comes to tackling people’s health issues and to removing barriers to opportunity and economic growth.

Ensuring that infrastructure is safe must be our overriding concern. Over 60% of respondents to the Department for Transport’s national travel attitudes survey said that safer roads would encourage them to cycle more. As I have said, rural roads can be more dangerous for cyclists, because there is faster-moving traffic and no space for segregated cycle lanes. That is why supporting local authorities to design and deliver high-quality active travel infrastructure that is safe and compliant with the relevant design standards is a key part of Active Travel England’s remit. It is also why funding provided by the Department for Transport for walking and cycling schemes comes with the clear requirement to comply with relevant design standards.

As the hon. Member for Henley and Thame may be aware, Oxfordshire county council has been successful in securing funding for active travel schemes in a number of rural areas. That includes nearly £1.5 million for a scheme in Abingdon and nearly £2 million for a scheme in Witney. The scheme in Abingdon will create a safe walking, wheeling and cycling route, providing new crossings and other improvements to overcome a significant barrier to active travel between Oxford and Abingdon, and onwards to Didcot and beyond.

Another example of a new scheme, which opened in the last few weeks, is in Wycombe, just across the county border from the constituency of the hon. Member. Buckinghamshire council completed an Active Travel England-funded improved pathway to support walking, wheeling, cycling and horse riding in Keep Hill wood, near High Wycombe.

The money for all these schemes has come from various dedicated pots of funding for active travel that have been announced by Active Travel England in recent years. In total, almost £650 million of funding has been provided for local authority infrastructure since covid. In addition, Active Travel England has worked with National Parks England to provide £1 million funding to allow the 10 national park authorities in England to develop inclusive active travel plans, as well as supporting activities, such as scheme planning and design, and how best to make sure local stakeholders are engaged. All 10 projects are due to be completed by next summer. I gather, too, that there was a petition last year concerning a proposed off-road cycle route in the hon. Member’s constituency. If they have not already done so already, I encourage representatives from Oxfordshire county council to contact Active Travel England about that scheme if it is a viable possibility.

I will try to address some points made by hon. Members. As I said, Active Travel England provided £1 million grant funding to national parks, and is currently working on guidance for authorities on how to design and build safe infrastructure for walking, wheeling and cycling in rural areas, including villages and market towns. We expect publication in late 2025. Active Travel England is currently engaging with stakeholder groups to support that work, including both potential route users such as Disabled Ramblers, Cycling UK, the British Horse Society and so on, and guidance users including local authorities, Highways England and bodies such as the National Trust and national parks.

I will conclude by saying a big thank you again to all Members who contributed and to the hon. Member for Henley and Thame for raising this important issue. I look forward to continuing to work with him—I thank him for his offer to work on a cross-party basis towards achieving our active travel ambitions—and all other hon. Members to enable more people to choose to walk, wheel and cycle, irrespective of where they live.