PM pledges £24m Yorkshire cycling boost
PRIME minister Theresa May has thrown her weight and the coffers of Government behind Yorkshire’s bid to become a world cycling hub.
Mrs May has pledged £24m towards a bid by tourism organisation Welcome to Yorkshire and British Cycling to bring the UCI Road World Championships to Yorkshire in 2019.
In an article in the Yorkshire Post, the PM allocated £15m of the funding to cycling infrastructure projects.
She said this was “to encourage even greater participation in the sport and continue the proud legacy that has seen our athletes excel at the Rio Games.”
Welcome to Yorkshire chief executive Sir Gary Verity said: “Yorkshire has everything a bike race could wish for. We can promise a gruelling but spectacular range of routes, huge crowds and the very warmest of welcomes.
“Make no mistake, cycling is in Yorkshire’s DNA and hosting the 2019 UCI Road World Championships will only reaffirm that.”
The PM also said that £13bn in funding for key infrastructure routes including improvements on the M62, the M1 and A1 had been allocated.
Mrs May said her Government would support quantum computing research at York Siemens’ Enterprise Zone in the Humber, and the new Royce Institute for Advanced Materials at the universities of Leeds and Sheffield.
She said it would also be funding incubator space for tech startups in Sheffield and Leeds.
In her article she wrote: “For too long the United Kingdom has been much too dependent on growth in London.
“There is no doubt that Yorkshire is on the rise. Compared to 2010, there are now 137,000 more jobs here and 50,000 more small businesses. There are big investments happening across the county. Across the North as a whole, inward investment has rocketed by 127% in the last two years alone.
“That’s even faster than in London and the South, and shows how international investors increasingly recognise the North’s strengths. But there is much more to do – and together with people in Yorkshire, this Government will take the next steps to drive this county forward.”
