Bridge to Nowhere Anderston, Glasgow M8 Crossing, Sustrans Connect2 lottery bid news, Strathclyde public realm proposal

Bridge to Nowhere : M8 Crossing, Glasgow

Sustrans’ Connect2 Lottery bid – M8 Structure, Anderston

23 Oct 2007

Bridge to Nowhere in the running for £50m TV vote, as part of Sustrans’ Connect2 bid

M8 bridge:

Anderston Footbridge

A major project to get people walking and cycling in Glasgow came a step closer today as Sustrans’ Connect2 Lottery bid entered the ultimate stage of the Big Lottery Fund’s: The People’s £50 Million contest. The final shortlist was announced today and TV presenter Lorraine Kelly and former minister Charles Clarke will lead the sustainable transport charity’s bid to transform local travel opportunities in Glasgow and across the UK. Adam Hart Davies, Wayne Hemingway and Ken Livingstone are among other high-profile supporters.

The Bridge to Nowhere is an ambitious project to finish Glasgow’s famous folly – the Anderston Footbridge across the M8 – which ends abruptly in mid-air above the Marriot Hotel Car Park. It was part of a 1960’s planning scheme to make the bridge the main pedestrian route across the motorway, linking it to the Anderston Shopping Centre. However, the intended shopping centre was shelved early on and the work on the half completed bridge subsequently abandoned.

Completing the ‘bridge to nowhere’ is one of 79 schemes that form the ‘Connect2′ bid by Sustrans, the United Kingdom’s leading sustainable transport charity, for a total of £50m lottery funding.

If successful, Glasgow City Council, who are leading the Glasgow scheme, will receive £1 million of lottery funds from the Connect2 project to help finish the bridge. The total cost of the project is estimated at around £2.25 million.

Councillor Ruth Simpson, Glasgow City Council’s Executive Member for Land and Environmental Services said: “The completion of the Bridge to Nowhere can help transform the way our residents and visitors can travel between the City Centre and the West of Glasgow. It is so important that this opportunity to finish the bridge 40 years after it was started is realised.”

Four organisations, including ‘Sustrans’ Connect2 project, are competing for the £50 million grant to be decided by public vote on ITV1 in December. Each project will be the subject of a television programme on ITV1 in the week commencing 3 December. Sustrans’ Connect2 programme featuring local residents from Glasgow will be shown on Tuesday 4 December. Full programme details will be released in mid November. Voting will take place online and by phone vote following the TV shows. Online voting for The People’s £50 Million Lottery Giveaway will open at 9am on 26 November at www.thepeoples50million.org.uk. Telephone voting will be over the weekend 7-10 December.

Connect2 will improve local travel in 79 communities across the UK by building walking and cycling bridges and tunnels, developing links, and even re-instating a ferry. Connect2 will also bring people closer together by making journeys quicker, healthier and more convenient.

From cyclists and leisure walkers to commuters and schoolchildren, everyone will have a better quality of life thanks to Connect2. Across the UK six million people live within a mile of the proposed schemes, including one million schoolchildren. It is estimated that 79,000 tonnes of carbon emissions could be saved annually once the schemes are completed.

Lorraine Kelly: “I meet so many people from all walks of life and I find one thing affects us all, travel. How many times have we stood on the edge of a busy road waiting for the traffic to ease or had to travel miles out of our way to get to the one bridge over the river? Connect2 deals with just these daily challenges and gives us the option to do the journey in a way that helps the environment. And, of course, it gets us fit – forget the gym, Connect2 is the answer to our obesity problems”.

Sustrans’ CEO John Grimshaw said, “Three years ago the National Cycle Network was voted Britain’s favourite large-scale, lottery-funded project. Connect2 will build on the NCN and provide local opportunities for people to combat two of the most pressing issues facing us – obesity and climate change. We ask anyone who would like to see local travel transformed across the UK to vote for Connect2 in December.”