Tuesday 5th March, 2024
Colchester’s funding from the Local Highways Panel is set to fall by 50% for the financial year ahead.
These figures will be discussed when the Scrutiny Panel next meets at the Town Hall on 12th March.
Last year the City Council received £500,000 from the LHP. This figure has now dropped to £250,000 for the year ahead. It represents 12.5% of the budget for all of Essex.
The LHP is the body that distributes funding to help improve active travel.
The remit is described as:
“The infrastructure that the LHP funds, which enable more journeys to be made on foot, wheeling, by bike or busses goes towards a quality network encouraging sustainable travel choices.”
Last year the £500,000 Colchester allocation helped to fund:
E-cargo bike Library – enabling those needing to transport goods to access an e-cargo bike for occasional services.
Opening the first in region Secure Cycle Park for those working or visiting the city centre to be confident that their bikes will be safe and secure.
Improvements to Wivenhoe Trail to better link the Wivenhoe to Colchester and University.
The overall budget for Essex for 2023/24 matches the 50% funding drop for Colchester. The £4m budget for 2022/23 has been slashed to £2m for the next twelve months.
A funding formula is used throughout the County to make sure that each area receives a proportional amount of central funding.
This is calculated as a percentage of the total sum of employment, population and road length in each district from the total sum of employment, population and road length in the County
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