Bid for cycling super-highway
Slough: £10m scheme would need financial backing
An ambitious bid put forward by Slough council for a new cycling ‘superhighway’ will be decided upon later this year, a cabinet meeting heard this week.
Planning officer Savio DeCruz provided councillors with an update on the council's proposals for the scheme along the A4 at Monday’s meeting in Observatory House.
The scheme is intended to improve cycle safety, decrease air pollution and encourage more residents to take up two wheels.
He informed members that the council had already received £250,000 from the Government to prepare the design of the scheme, which was first brought before councillors back in November 2020.
However, this work was put on pause late last year after Department for Transport (DfT) officials visited the council to discuss its bid for the superhighway.
Mr DeCruz said that this bid was in fact a ‘substantial amount’ of £10million – the largest bid that the Government had received.
He told cabinet: “The
main reason we paused it is because we don’t want to spend the £250,000 on the design and then they [the DFT] give us a quarter of the amount to implement the scheme that we want to.”
Mr DeCruz added that Government transport chiefs are keen on moving the idea of a cycling superhighway in Slough forward, and was expecting an update on the progress of the council’s bid in a few months time.
"They are very interested because it is the largest bid that they have received,” he said.
A decision on whether or not the council has been successful is expected to be given by early spring, Mr DeCruz said.
The news of a potential cycling superhighway follows the permanent adoption of the controversial A4 bus lane in Slough (see front page).
Both measures – funded by the Government – are aimed at moving people away from private cars and making the town more sustainable.