As part of the Sheffield City Region Growth Deal, announced in 2014, a £16.3m investment allocation was made towards a Sustainable Transport Exemplar Programme (STEP). Let’s look at how that’s going. This information is from item 13 of this meeting.
![STEP Funding Profiles](https://www.mattturner.blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/graph-step.png)
The full list of projects is available here. The ones in Sheffield are in the table below. As of 30/09/2015 no money had been claimed.
2015/16 Funding as 02/03/2015
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2015/16 Funding as 23/11/2015
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Claimed (30/09/2015)
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Comment
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SS01 |
Greenhill Parkway / Greenhill Avenue
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£350,000
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£0
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£0
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Project cancelled – ‘intentionally delayed, and its 2015/16 funding allocation reallocated, whilst SCC officers consider an alternate funding regime’
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SS02 |
Grey to Green Phase 1 – Sheffield Riverside Business District
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£250,000
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£225,000
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£0 | CycleSheffield have campaigned to improve this scheme because of problems with cycling provision. |
SS03 |
Lower Don Valley Cycle Route
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£265,000 | £185,000 | £0 |
“Lower Don Valley Cycle Routes – Weedon Street Link” – I’m not sure what this is.
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SS04 |
Upper Don Valley Cycle Route
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£200,000 | £375,000 | £0 | I’m not sure exactly what part of the route this is, but it goes from Oughtibridge to Stocksbridge, it has been called the Little Don Link before. |
SS05 |
Tinsley – Victoria Cycle Route – Canal Towpath
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£50,000 | £0 | £0 | This project isn’t included in STEP anymore, I’m not sure if it’s been cancelled. |
SS06 |
Sheffield City Centre Cycle Routes
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£0
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£50,000
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£0 | Design and preparation works only in 2015/16 |
SS07 |
Blackburn Valley Cycle Route
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£0
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£50,000
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£0 | Design and preparation works only in 2015/16 |
PS04 |
Chesterfield Road – Heeley Bottom
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£0
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£760,000
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£0 | CycleSheffield have strongly criticised this scheme. It includes permitting parking in 1.5m painted cycle lanes. |
Total
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£1,645,000
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£0 |
So… lets me honest here, the STEP is definitely not a step up in provision, it’s more of the same, and as far as I can tell, there’s zero road space allocation towards cycling.
And the Meadowhall Car Park extension which had £670,000 allocated to it for this year? That’s been pushed out, £1.45million next year, and £1.25million the following year, £2.7million, 16% of the entire STEP budget, on a car park.