"Cycling is for everyone": Council leader responds to claim he"doesn't like cycling because it's too middle-class"
Despite the funding already being in place, five major 'Connecting Sheffield' projects have now been delayed by years and will not begin construction until the autumn at the earliest, raising concerns and prompting the council to insist it"remains committed" to the scheme.that the leader of the council, currently a coalition of Labour, Liberal Democrat and Green representatives, Cllr Fox"doesn't like cycling because he thinks it is middle-class".
"As a miner for over 30 years who sometimes rode a bicycle to work and saw lots of my fellow comrades doing that with snap bag over one arm and towel under the other, riding to the pit for the start of their shift is a memory I will hold and cherish. My best mucker still rides avidly along with my son, they did a charity bike ride for the Lord Mayor's charity few years back.
The 'Connecting Sheffield' schemes will see active travel infrastructure built, including some temporary cycle lanes being made permanent and should have been completed by March 2023. Sheffield received its funding at the same time as its Yorkshire counterparts but work will begin 15 months later at the earliest.