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This morning, as you may already have read, we reported that councils across England are set to share £200 million of government money aimed at encouraging cycling and walking initiatives, with 134 active travel projects set to receive funding through the scheme.
In Wales, however, a government minister has claimed that some councils are not interested in bidding for funding for new cycling and walking routes.
Lee Waters, Wales’ deputy minister for climate change, made the claim as the devolved government announced the allocation of its £50 million active travel fund.
While schemes in Cardiff and Swansea are set to receive around £6 million each to either continue or create new cycling and walking routes, some councils – such as in Wrexham, Neath Port Talbot, Gwynedd, Denbighshire and Caerphilly – will only receive a “core allocation” of £500,000, the minimum amount of funding that can secured from the scheme.
> More than 100 cycling and walking projects across England to share £200 million in funding
“The truth is, some counties are more interested in this agenda than others,” Waters told the BBC, while speaking at an event in Cardiff organised by cycling charity Pedal Power, where he called on local authorities to “take action now” against climate change.
“Some counties don’t put bids in. Others, like Cardiff, put enormous bids in – and there is an unevenness.
“I’m quite happy to fund ambitious councils like Cardiff who want to do the right thing and put infrastructure in. I can’t worry too much if another council does not put another bid in, in the short term.
“One of the conversations I’m having with councils is: ‘How do we help them overcome the barriers they have?’
“Some councillors aren’t putting bids in because they can’t get the staff to put the bids in and to build the schemes.
“Others aren’t putting it in, because frankly they are not interested.
“That needs to change, and it needs to be challenged both by the Welsh government, and also by local people.”
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