The Peak District is already one of the nicest parts of the country you can cycle round and this is set to improve with a £1.25 million cash injection from Cycling England.
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I remember visiting the Peak District National Park as part of a Geography trip and thinking how amazing it is (I was also probably thinking how good it is to be out of school!). Anyway, the impressive national park is apparently within 60 miles reach of 32% of the UK population and it already boasts 58 miles of off-road cycle paths. This made it highly attractive to Cycling England when they were looking for projects to fund.
A large part of the money will be spent on new cycling facilities. This includes improving existing routes and creating new routes. Additionally money will be allocated to programs that educate people about the benefits of cycling and helping them get started.
Overall a great victory for cycling. However, the Yorkshire post puts things into perspective by looking at some of the funding figures. The typical yearly spend per citizen for cycling initiatives in the UK is around £1. This is a sharp contrast to cycling havens such as the Netherlands where the spending is around £10-£20 per year. 
Therefore it is clear that a lot more needs to be done to catch-up with our European counterparts.
Cycling in the Peak District
If you want to have a cycle around the Peak District then you can grab a train from London which takes around 3 hours. A good book to look at is Cycling in the Peak District which is available on Amazon.
Images by: Steve p2008 and Andy Matthews
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