Author Topic: Cycling England for the chop?  (Read 8408 times)

Cycling England for the chop?
« on: 22 August, 2010, 05:36:28 pm »
It looks like funding for cycle training may be under threat  :-[

CYCLING ENGLAND for the Axe?


Re: Cycling England for the chop?
« Reply #1 on: 22 August, 2010, 06:03:40 pm »
It will be a shame if it goes, the level of cycling ability in this country is poor enough as it is, and removing this is likely to make it worse.

... and there are a few people on here who I suspect would be directly affected, which would also be a bad thing.
Actually, it is rocket science.
 

andygates

  • Peroxide Viking
Re: Cycling England for the chop?
« Reply #2 on: 22 August, 2010, 08:06:11 pm »
What, the hugely successful medal machine, just before a home olympics?  ???
It takes blood and guts to be this cool but I'm still just a cliché.
OpenStreetMap UK & IRL Streetmap & Topo: ravenfamily.org/andyg/maps updates weekly.

David Martin

  • Thats Dr Oi You thankyouverymuch
Re: Cycling England for the chop?
« Reply #3 on: 22 August, 2010, 08:18:59 pm »
What, the hugely successful medal machine, just before a home olympics?  ???

No, that is British Cycling, not Cycling England.

We have even more confusion as we have Scottish Cycling and Cycling Scotland. One is primarily political high status, focussing on sport and medals, and the other promotes utility cycling and cycle training.
"By creating we think. By living we learn" - Patrick Geddes

andygates

  • Peroxide Viking
Re: Cycling England for the chop?
« Reply #4 on: 22 August, 2010, 08:23:49 pm »
 :facepalm:
It takes blood and guts to be this cool but I'm still just a cliché.
OpenStreetMap UK & IRL Streetmap & Topo: ravenfamily.org/andyg/maps updates weekly.

Re: Cycling England for the chop?
« Reply #5 on: 22 August, 2010, 11:14:49 pm »
Cycling England aka the Cycling Proficiency, that I suspect quite a few people on here did at one time.  I know I did, and passed.  Somewhere I've got my badge and certificate, probably back home with my Mum.
Actually, it is rocket science.
 

clarion

  • Tyke
Re: Cycling England for the chop?
« Reply #6 on: 31 August, 2010, 10:38:41 am »
Great.  Marvellous.  Here comes the Big Society.

Or the Small-minded one.
Getting there...

Regulator

  • That's Councillor Regulator to you...
Re: Cycling England for the chop?
« Reply #7 on: 04 September, 2010, 09:44:44 am »
Hmmmm.... I'll add a bit of controversy here.

I wouldn't be that sad to see Cycling England disappear.  As a quango it's been a bit of a hit and miss affair - and it has quite high admin costs.

Bikeability?  Developed by cyclists - now bastardised by bureaucrats.

Southend's notorious cycle lane?  Got the Cycling England seal of approval.

Sustrans are pissed?  They're very chummy with Cycling England and get most of their funding via them.

Cycle Trainers Database?  Cycling England took the work from a not for profit organisation (CTC) and gave it to a consultancy firm.

Pushing for helmets?  Anyone remember the bike safety piece that caused such concern a while ago, with it's insistence on helmet use?  That was a Cycling England creation.

My understanding is that funding will remain (albeit reduced given the current economic constraints) but the rather wasteful and questionable way of distributing it through Cycling England will go.  Bikeability will remain I hope, administered through local authorities and cycling groups such as CTC, LCC and the other cycling campaigns.

So, as long as the funding for cycling is still there (and I think it will be given the new public health emphasis and the fact that cycling is being pushed by the NHS), I won't be too sad to see the demise of Cycling England.
Quote from: clarion
I completely agree with Reg.

Green Party Councillor

Re: Cycling England for the chop?
« Reply #8 on: 04 September, 2010, 05:43:09 pm »
+1

CE is a self serving bureaucracy. When I first quailified as a Bikeability instructor, all instructors were listed on the Bikeability website so potential trainees could locate their nearest instructor. Then CE removed all individual instructors who hadn't registered a "training scheme" with them, a pointless exercise involving at least two days work compiling an organisational training manual, totally irrelevant to individual instructors.

They also only sell materials such as badges and certificates in bulk quantities, uneconomic for all but the largest training companies.

border-rider

Re: Cycling England for the chop?
« Reply #9 on: 13 September, 2010, 08:33:19 am »
Christian Wolmar puts a different perspective

Norman save cycling cash | Christian Wolmar

<thanks to Phil Benstead on the AUK list for the link>

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: Cycling England for the chop?
« Reply #10 on: 29 September, 2010, 12:01:48 pm »
I'm wondering if the opportunity to pick up some of CE's functions might not be partly behind the CTC council's desire to convert to a charity. I'm merely wondering, though.
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

David Martin

  • Thats Dr Oi You thankyouverymuch
Re: Cycling England for the chop?
« Reply #11 on: 03 October, 2010, 06:43:21 pm »
I'm wondering if the opportunity to pick up some of CE's functions might not be partly behind the CTC council's desire to convert to a charity. I'm merely wondering, though.

It doesn't need to be a charity to bid for third party contracts. And the charity part can already do that.

CTC are surely going to be a major beneficiary of CE going to the wall as they are the key expertise wrt bikeability? And Norman has said that Bikeability is safe.. It also means that taking it back in house allows it to be more easily rolled out to other regions not in CE remit.
"By creating we think. By living we learn" - Patrick Geddes