Kent Urged To Prioritise Cycling As Active Travel Funding Decisions Progress
New research highlights a need to improve cycling infrastructure with Kent’s 90% boost in active travel grant funding.
Analysing 2026 to 2030 funding allocations for England’s Active Travel Capability Fund, cycling retailer Paul’s Cycles found:
- Kent County Council received an additional £12,271,296 allocation compared to funds received in 2020-2025, an increase of 90% and the second highest in the country.
- £25,924,411 will be received by Kent in total, with over £600 million in funding allocated across England.
- Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority and Hampshire County Council also received large funding boosts, while Liverpool City Region Combined Authority experienced the biggest decrease.
As local authorities decide how to spend funds, Paul’s Cycles is pushing for cycling to be prioritised, an area of active travel that has historically been sidelined.
Tom Thornley, the retailer’s Managing Director, says: “Too often, cycling is added to development plans as a box-ticking exercise and removed later with little scrutiny. The government encourages active travel, but councils continue to remove the infrastructure needed to support it.
“Cutting cycling schemes might look like an easy saving on paper, but it creates higher costs elsewhere and further down the line. Even if you never plan to cycle, cycling infrastructure still benefits you.”
An example of this happening in Kent is when plans for three new walking and cycling schemes were halted in 2022. At the time, a council spokesperson said: “We will need to go back to the drawing board for some of these ideas.” Cycleways that have been introduced show evidence of poor maintenance, with large cracks appearing in the £500k cycle path between Herne Bay and Whitstable.
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Elsewhere in the country
- Cycling upgrades along Dereham Road in Norwich were suddenly scrapped with no consultation due to rising costs and limited funding, causing outrage from local councillors and members of the public.
- A key planned cycling route in the West Midlands has experienced significant delays. Despite funding being allocated in 2019, councillors have called it a low priority and are said to be reviewing the “worth of cycle lanes”. More than 3,000 residents signed a petition backing the plans.
- A protected cycle track was removed from plans for the Harrogate Station Gateway project in Yorkshire. Amid campaigns, councils have also refused to implement an ‘early release’ to protect cyclists from buses at a potentially dangerous junction.
- Named a “massive policy failure”, initial plans for cycle safety improvements to a travel scheme in Bristol were sidelined to create bus lanes, despite warnings that the road is "cycle-hostile".
Why we need to back cycling
Tom says: “Cycling infrastructure is still viewed as serving a small minority, rather than the large group of people who would cycle if conditions were right. Car-based transport is prioritised because it is familiar and politically safer in the short term.”
Cleaner air and healthier populations reduce NHS pressure, while fewer car journeys improve congestion and road wear.
- For every £1 spent on cycling and walking schemes in the UK, nearly £6 is returned in benefits.
- 72% of women and 50% of men stated that a lack of cycle lanes and/or poor road quality prevents them from cycling.
“If councils are serious about sustainability targets, public health and affordable transport, cycling infrastructure has to be protected in the same way that roads and public transport are. It cannot be the first thing dropped when budgets tighten," Tom concludes.
• Read the full rankings and additional research into how cycling is being left behind on Paul’s Cycles’ website paulscycles.co.uk/blog/wheres-that-cycle-lane/
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