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It was Norris, chair of the National Cycle Strategy Board, who advised transport minister John Spellar to pull the cash. Bike 2003 is being funded to the tune of £54 000, but the pro-cycle promotion has to be fend for itself from 2004 onwards.
Norris isn’t budging. He wants Bike Week to seek commercial sponsorship. It was sponsored to the tune of £100 000 a year in 1994 and 1995.
"Bike Week has become an institution, it has started to ossify. There was a clear danger that the department [for Transport] was going to write cheque after cheque," said Norris.
"We need to think carefully what we want out of it, or it just becomes an annual ritual.
"God knows we ought to be able to get a sponsor. The London Marathon has Flora.
"If we let Bike Week become just a jolly, a chance to be with your [advocacy] mates from last year, we’re not getting as much out of it as we can.
"We want to see Bike Week continue, but it has got to be reinvented. There needs to be more creativity."
