County council spends £75,000 of emergency funds meant to make social distancing easier on digital cycle counters in Northampton

The county council has so far spent £75,000 of an emergency grant designed to help make travel with social distancing easier on a project to install digital cycle counters in Northampton.

in June, the local authority was handed a £351,000 grant from the Government's Emergency Active Travel Fund to spend on "quick win" projects to make social distancing easier, such as widening footpaths and creating pop-up cycle paths.

However, the council has now shown that out of the £173,000 spent to date, £75,000 of the funding has been used on a scheme to add digital cycle counters to Kettering Road and Harlestone Road in Northampton.

The original letter by the DfT in May 2020 announcing the scheme stated: "Anything that does not meaningfully alter the status quo on the roads will not be funded."

Now, a Northamptonshire Green Party member says the council has misunderstood how to use funding and is at risk of having it "clawed back" by the DfT who could subtract it from future funds.

Green Party candidate Steve Miller said: "I think its difficult to argue that digital counters alter the status quo on the roads.

"The funding was specifically to be used for items that would encourage cyclists and pedestrians to use the roads. It's difficult to see how cycle counters fit the bill, so I'd be worried that the £75,000 towards those would be clawed back."

As of August 6, the council has spent £173,000 of the £351,000 Tranche 1 funding.

£26,000 was spent to open the Weedon Road and St James Road bus lanes in Northampton as a 24/7 service.

£18,000 has been spent on footpath widening projects in Kettering, Wellingborough and Northampton, while new bicycle parking spots across the county have cost £39,000.

It means at £75,000, a fifth of the entire funding so far has been spent on the digital cycle counters project in Northampton.

As of time of writing (August 7), the county council was unable to provide a comment.