Just a thought - whatever the figure actually represents - perhaps the
councillor should be demanding more than 208K for their "annual
integrated transport budget" ? After all what kind of integrated
transport can you run for such a small sum?

Frazer Goodwin
Policy Officer
European Transport Safety Council
Rus du Cornet / Hoornstraat 22
B-1040 Brussels
Belgium
Tel : + 32 (0)2 230 4106
Fax: + 32 (0)2 230 4215
E-mail: [log in to unmask]


-----Original Message-----
From: Cycling and Society Research Group discussion list
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Mark McGuinness
Sent: Thursday, May 12, 2005 11:41 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Urgent - HELP re Integrated Transport Budget

Dear All

I'm hoping one of you lovely people out there will know the answer to
this
off the top of your heads - it's all a bit of a rush however....

I'm involved in a local cycle pressure group, we have a 'secret'
publicity
stunt/event tonight (fortuitously coinciding with a full meeting of Bath
&
NES council) aimed at exposing the council's petty expenditure on
cycling
(23K last year on the figures we have). Bath is a UA.

We have the local press and regional TV coming to record what we're
going to
do. Only problem is, we obviously have a KGB-style mole in our camp as
the
Council have caught wind of our stunt and - in a dirty, pre-emptive
strike -
have stolen our thunder and sent out a press release this morning
rebutting
the claims (that we havent made yet!), stating that in fact they spend
8% of
the council's "Annual Integrated Transport Budget" on cycling, which to
the
lay ear probably sounds quite reasonable, especially as cycling accounts
for
between 4 and 6% of trips in Bath city centre. The councillor
responsible is
extremely pro-car and indifferent (at best) to bicycles.

We're going to go ahead anyway, but the press and BBC are bound to want
to
ask us about this 'fact'. Can anyone out there tell me, briefly, what
this
budget is all about? It sounds like it's a separate budget from the
mainstream transport allocation? if 23K is 8% then the overall budget is
around 280K. You couldn't build a single proper road junction with ASLs
and
signage for 280K could you?! Am I right in thinking that this a separate
pot
of money specifically for IT projects, and not to be seen as THE pot of
money for cycling related provision. Could we legitimately say, "that's
very
nice of you, but what about allocation from the 'proper' transport
budget"
(where the real money is) without looking hopelessly ill-informed?

Any help gratefully received - wish us luck for tonight!

Cheers

Mark