Sadly, as set out here, this post now appears to have been in error. Our apologies.
We finally have had confirmation that Auckland Council last week passed a serious increase in walking & cycling funding. The new annual plan 2014-15 has set aside 32 million (!) for walking and cycling, and got approved last week.
The document is not online yet, but we’ve had Council confirm (thanks Christopher Dempsey!).
It is a bit difficult to compare this to last year’s (as that contained lots of individual items, while this time, the walking & cycling funding is mostly in one single line item) but from memory, the increase is somewhere between two and three times (!) the previous funding. Furthermore, there’s also chances these increases could be here to stay, with Council reported to seriously consider doubling or tripling cycle funding for the whole 2015-2018 LTP (next 3 yr funding period).
This means a lot of projects that were “on the cards” already will now be able to proceed much more quickly. Considering that I am personally aware of, for example, four (!) protected cycle lane projects that could well be in place within 12 months (one having started building on Monday), the news is particularly welcome. This boost comes at the right time indeed.
