Redhill Station awarded £200,000 Government cash injection in cycling investment (From Redhill And Reigate Life)

Redhill Station awarded £200,000 Government cash injection in cycling investment

2:05pm Wednesday 6th February 2013 in News

Redhill Station has been awarded a £200,000 cash injection by the Government as part of a huge investment in cycling.

Transport Minister Norman Baker last week announced the award from the Linking Places Fund as part of a £62 million investment in cycling.

The money will be used for increased cycle parking and cycle hire at the station, plus added CCTV, lighting and signage. There will also be a new mobile workshop offering repair and maintenance. Mr Baker, the MP for Lewes, said: “We are serious about cycling, as this latest wave of funding shows.

“We have already seen how schemes can quickly deliver economic and environmental benefits, as well as improving public health. “Anyone who rides a bike will know it is important to keep the impetus going, and this record level of funding will provide a shot in the arm to cycling in England.”

He said: “Our ambition is to get people cycling more safely and more often, and today’s announcements will help us to make that vision a reality.”

The record £62 million investment in cycling comes with Surrey seeing a boom in local people taking to two wheels in the wake of last year's London Olympics.

Surrey itself was given a starring role in the Games with the men's and women's cycling road races and time trial events held in the county, circuiting Box Hill a number of times and running into Reigate and Banstead borough.

Surrey also hosted the final stage of the prestigious Tour of Britain cycling event last September, the UK's biggest professional cycle race. And, in a team-up with London mayor Boris Johnson, Surrey is to hold an annual 100-mile cycling road race through the capital and the county. Geared up for a field of 35,000 elite, club and amateur cyclists, the event, following a route based on the one used for the Olympics, will be part of a weekend-long cycling festival, with the aim of being the biggest fundraising cycle race in the world. The date set for the first 100-mile race is Sunday, August 4.

And on top of that, last year Surrey County Council revealed it is planning a bid to host a stage of the Tour de France, the world's premier cycling event. The county council said it had been spurred on to look at putting together a bid to host the iconic event by Team GB’s Olympic cycling success on the county’s roads. The county council has teamed up with British Cycling and Active Surrey to create “a lasting cycling legacy” of bike-friendly schemes and promotion of cycling.

Over the last 12 months, the Government has announced £107 million will be made available for cycling during this Parliament. The Redhill cycle hub scheme is one of a number of projects which the Government said will build on the success of those previously funded by the Department of Tansport, which have promoted links between cycling and train use, and looked at local needs to make cycling easier and more attractive in communities around the country.

Most of the schemes receiving funding from the Department will also receive local contributions, which the Government said will make the true value of the fund to cyclists considerably higher.