The London Mayor under spent his cycling budget by £54m last year and £10m the year before that, according to figures collated by Green Party member of the Greater London Assembly, Darren Johnson.
The London Mayor and Transport for London have issued press releases announcing "record" levels of investment in cycling this year and in the previous two financial years. In 2008/09 ten million was added to the cycling budget by the current Mayor, but actual expenditure was the same as that allocated by the previous Mayor. In 2009/10 the budget was £111m, but actual expenditure was just over half of that at £57m.
Year 2008/09 2009/10 2010/11
Total budget £55m £111m (includes carry over) £116m+ boroughs (includes carry over)
Actual spent £44.8m £57m unknown
Carried over £10m £54m unknown
Darren Johnson said:
"London’s cycling revolution has been stalled for the last two years as the Mayor failed to finish the London Cycle Network, which would have created hundreds of linked up cycle routes throughout London. The Mayor has talked about record levels of expenditure on cycling, but his main achievement up to now has been to cancel the one big project that was on the verge of delivering a huge advance for cycle safety, especially in outer London. Expenditure on cycling has gone up, but with the exception of some good work by local authorities, little extra has been achieved so far."
ENDS
Notes to editors
1. TfL PR 16 June 2008: "A record £55m to be invested in cycling in London this year."
TfL PR 28th May 2009: "The Mayor and TfL are investing a record £111m in cycling in London this year. The money is being spent on introducing the London Cycle Hire scheme, improving parking and road conditions for cyclists, education, training and promotion."
TfL PR 24th May 2010: "The Mayor and TfL are investing a record £116m in cycling this year. That money is being spent on the London Cycle Hire scheme, Cycle Superhighways, infrastructure, promotion and education."
2. The LCN+ was due to be finished by beginning of 2010. Analysis of the money provided to the boroughs in 2008/09 for the LCN+ showed that a total of 383 schemes had not been funded due to a budget cut, 260 of them in outer London boroughs, based upon question to the London Mayor No: 2698 / 2008.
3. The previous Mayor had allocated a combined budget for walking and cycling of £62m in 2008/09 and £63m in 2009/10 (GLA press release 11th Feb 2008).
4. Cycle expenditure
Year 2008/09 2009/10 2010/11
Cycle hire 1 17 67
Superhighways 0 5 32
Other spending 19 19 17
Total TfL spending £20m 41 Budget £116m
Local councils spending £24m £16m unknown
Total spending £44m £57m Budget £116m+