Mick Grant

I am due to head to Nottingham next week for the next meeting of The Alliance. I have blogged before about their campaign to ensure National Lottery funding is distributed equally and not just to London and the Olympics and the matter is on the agenda again.  In total £2,175-million will be diverted to the Olympics, the equivalent to £35 per head of the entire population.

Andy Burnham MP has taken up the cause for us and members of The Alliance have met with him to discuss concerns. There is no doubt we should support the Olympics and as a keen cyclist I am glad we are hosting such a prestigious event, but I would hope that is not to the detriment of local groups and organisations. They also play the lottery and should receive their fair share of cash earmarked for good causes.

I shall also be attending an incapacity benefits conference on June 11 and will post on my blog my thoughts after both meetings.

I was very disappointed to read the front page story in today's Scunthorpe Telegraph with the extravagant headline regarding a proposal for a '100 per cent increase' in the allowance for those who claim for cycling to and from council business.  As a very keen cyclist I wanted to write in my blog to put this story into context.  Sadly it is nowhere near as exciting as the Telegraph is misleading it's readers.

In the last financial year (2007/8) just £54.30 was claimed by the 43 members of North Lincolnshire Council for using bikes to get to and from meetings. All of that amount was claimed by one specific councillor. There are two other members who regularly bike to and from Pittwood House, myself and a member of the local Tories. In the last year, with the allowance 15p a mile, neither of us claimed any money.  The Telegraph could quite easily have put this in the story but, of course, chose not to.  I guess the saying 'never let the truth get in the way of a good story' is apt in this case!

Should we not be doing our bit to encourage people to either use public transport or alternative, more environmentally friendly travel?  If members agree to increase the allowance from 15p per mile to 30p per mile it will still be about 50 per cent less than the current mileage allowance for travelling in cars. Why is this a bad thing?  Cycling is also an excellent way to keep fit and healthy and we should do as much as we can to encourage people to get on their bikes. The Tour of Britain is visiting the region for the first time attracting international cyclists. Later in the summer we will be hosting a special 70-mile event which will re-create the local leg of the Tour which I shall be participating in for charity. Why shouldn't councillors set the example?  I welcome any initiative that encourages people to get on their bikes.

The story in the Telegraph seems to have been written to provoke a reaction rather to inform readers in a fair and balanced way.  If the recommendations are approved councillors will receive a basic allowance of just £7,488 a year. Putting this into context according to a recent story in the Telegraph the average salary in North Lincolnshire is more than £25,000 a year.  It's very unfortunate the local paper would rather manipulate and mislead people in an attempt to sell newspapers than present the facts as they actually are.

On Friday I attended the regional launch of this year's Tour of Britain cycling event. For the first time the Tour is to come through North Lincolnshire as part of the Yorkshire (Hull to Dalby Forest) leg. It is the second longest day of the race, which is a gruelling 730-mile cycle race spread over eight days. It starts in London on 7 September and finishes in Liverpool.

Competitors will cycle from Hessle over the Humber Bridge, through Barton, Barrow and South Ferriby before returning back across the bridge to complete stage five of the race.

At Friday's launch Simon Driver, the council's chief executive, and myself posed for photographs on our bikes in preparation for the event.  As a keen cyclist myself it is fantastic news the Tour will visit North Lincolnshire.  As well as the hosting the leg we are also having two other events to promote cycling.  The first will take place on August 31 where we will have a special cycling event which we hope people will get involved in.

The second event will take place on September 21 and we are hopeful as many as 5,000 cyclists will come to North Lincs to take part in the 70-mile route. I will be taking part and I hope many others will too. The event will allow amateur and semi-professional cyclists to follow the very route the Tour of Britain takes in.  I am hopeful of getting a team together and taking part in the ride to raise money for the mayor's charities.

The first meeting of North Lincolnshire Council's Regional Housing board took place on Wednesday. The group has been created to discuss various housing issues which effect North Lincolnshire. The board looked at various housing projects from across the area and decided on which projects should take priority. These include rural affordable housing, support housing, youthbuild and work to help teenage parents. 

Work on these projects will be funded by £3.6 million secured by the Regional Hosing Board. I felt the meeting was a great success. Many housing issues were discussed and important decisions were made and I am looking forward to seeing all of the projects develop. The Regional Housing Board will continue to work with a range of developers and housing associations to develop all areas of housing in North Lincolnshire.

The meeting also seems to have captured the imagination of the local press and I am due to talk about it on local radio later today.