LEPs’ funding prioritises roads over sustainable transport, campaigners say

Funding for new transport is ‘heavily weighted’ towards new roads at the expense of sustainable transport, new research reveals.

The Campaign for Better Transport monitored spending on transport projects by Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) and discovered spending on roads was prioritised over more environmentally friendly means of transport.

Their research found 50% of new transport projects spend had been allocated for new road capacity and two thirds of all bids on road-based schemes, while only 3% was spent on walking and cycling.

Bridget Fox from the Campaign for Better Transport said: ‘Our research clearly shows that the balance of proposed LEP funding is still far too heavily weighted to new roads.

‘What we need to see is a much more joined-up approach to transport planning, with a modern public transport system connecting people’s homes with their place of work.’