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Norwich Green Councillors present motion on cycling

19 June 2008 - At the next meeting of Norwich City Council on 24 June 2008, Green Party Councillor Samir Jeraj will propose a motion to improve conditions for cycling across the city. Today, during National Bike Week, the Norwich Green Party is announcing its proposals.

Councillor Jeraj said: "This is a common-sense motion. It mandates the Council to use every available opportunity to improve cycling conditions across the city. Something which it has a patchy record on! Cycling is good for health and good for the environment. Most importantly, in these belt-tightening times, it's cheaper."

The motion calls for a plan of systematic improvements in the city to link key routes together and to remove obstacles to cycling, and for these measures to be put into place as soon as the opportunity arises through the ongoing work of the transport department. It also calls for the involvement of Norwich residents in the design and placement of facilities.

Councillor Rupert Read, Green Party Transport spokesperson, will be seconding the motion. Councillor Read said: "There have been plans for a Cycling Network in Norwich since the early 1990s. It's about time we took the initiative on getting the key improvements made to roads and junctions. The more people we can encourage onto their bikes, the less congested the road network will be - and the more people will be saving money, by travelling in a way that is immune to fuel price increases. The number of people looking to cycle is on the up: the City needs to respond by making it safer and more convenient for people to cycle."

Councillor Jeraj also took part in guided tour of cycling facilities in Norwich conducted by the Norwich Cycling Campaign on 18 June 2008 as part of National Bike Week. The tour pointed out some of the problems of the existing facilities. He said: "Many of the problems I have seen could easily have been avoided had there been clearer thinking at the time. I hope that this motion will encourage more people to cycle in the near future."

The motion is announced by Norwich Green Party on the same day that the Government announced the list of twelve successful 'Cycling Demonstration Towns & Cities'. In East Anglia, Cambridge and Colchester were among the successful twelve. Norwich Green Party had previously called upon the Council to encourage Norwich to bid.

Councillor Read said: "We congratulate to Cambridge, Colchester and the other successful 'Cycling Towns and Cities' bidders. The Green Party Group on the Council here will press hard for Norwich to bid too, next time. It is a matter of great regret that Norwich did not put in a bid this time. In these circumstances, the motion that we are putting forward on this coming Tuesday is badly needed: Norwich needs to act now to keep its cycling facilities moving forward, and adequate for the 21st century."

Links

• National Bike Week

Full text of motion

Cycle Provision in Norwich

Councillor Jeraj to move:

Council notes:

• the strong demand for cycling in Norwich;
• the relatively fragmented and piecemeal nature of the present cycling network; and
• the existence of plans for a full 'Norwich Cycling Network'.

Council believes:

• that Norwich deserves coherent and high quality conditions for cycling;
• that this can be achieved through the production and implementation of an 'improvement plan' which identifies key improvements to cycling infrastructure and completes the Norwich Cycling Network; and
• that opportunities for implementing this plan will become available through the County Council Local Transport Plan; S106 agreements; as part of regeneration schemes such as the Northern City Centre Area Action Plan; and works programmes in addition to any external funding sought for the specific development of cycling in Norwich.

Council resolves:

• to mandate Officers to produce a plan for systematic improvements to the Norwich cycling network including junction treatments and new links;
• to consult partners and community groups such as TRAs and Norwich Cycling Campaign in the designing of both the plan and of the specific proposals when opportunities arise;
• to submit this document to the Norwich Highways Agency Committee requesting that the plan is incorporated into the Norwich Area Transportation Strategy (NATS) to inform the detailed implementation of the relevant NATS policies and to input into the Local Development Framework.