'Love English Cities [With a Dutch Touch]'

David Cameronhas announced the largest injection of public money into cycling in England, with support from Britain's most successful Olympian, Chris Hoy. The £77m fund is designed to promote cycling in eight cities in an effort to put Britain on a level footing with countries known for higher levels of cycling such as Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands. The cash will pay for upgrades and other improvements to help cyclists at 14 locations on the trunk road network where major roads have been identified as posing an obstacle for bike journeys. The £77m, divided between Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham, Newcastle, Bristol, Cambridge, Oxford and Norwich, will help improve existing cycle networks and pay for new ones, creating segregated routes in some areas. Greater Manchester (£20m), West Yorkshire (£18.1m) and Birmingham (£17m) will receive the bulk of the funding. The government said it takes the total new funding for cycling, including local contributions, to £148m between now and 2015, and investment in the eight cities to more than £10 per head per year, the base figure recommended by the all-party parliamentary ccling group and national cycling charity CTC.Read on in BBC News UK and in The Guardian.