Conservatives wanted to "get rid of cycling as DfT function," claims Julian Huppert

Philip Hammond as transport secretary attempted to "get rid of cycling as a DfT function [because] he saw it as unimportant and trivial," claims former All Party Parliamentary Group co-chair Julian Huppert.

In an interview with the Cambridge Cycling Campaign this week, former Cambridge MP Huppert gives an assessment of the ups and downs of cycling under the coalition Government that ended in May. He says that when he put in for a parliamentary debate on cycling, "the general view was that we wouldn't get enough MPs to show up. In the end, we broke the record for MPs in Westminster Hall, our second debating chamber, and even ran out of seats. We had established a level of importance that transformed what could be done." 

He said that whilst Hammond succeeded in axeing Cycling England, "I spoke in detail to the chair of Cycling England, and his view was that it was more important to save Bikeability, which we did manage to do". The former MP, who lost his seat as the Lib Dems suffered a massive loss of support, is proud of the money put in to cycling through the Local Sustainable Transport Fund and the Cycle City Ambition grants.

But he claims that the thing that will "probably have the longest-lasting influence was the Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy I managed to get into the Infrastructure Act," which became law this week. "I think that this will be the key for future cycling investment." This said, he acknowledges that the Conservatives and Labour did not back the Get Britain Cycling recommendation that £10 per person per year is spent on cycling. "We achieved a lot but it's pretty depressing how much more there is still to do."