Windsor & Eton Express

Bid for cycling super-highway

Slough: £10m scheme would need financial backing

- By Kieran Bell kieranb@baylismedi­a.co.uk @KieranB_BM

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.

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